Champions
by Mercy Smith
Summary: Pirates and champions and marines, oh my! Sam didn't think going to the beach would end with crazy pirates, chasing marines, and strange people called 'champions' but at least she has her friends with her. All she has to do now is learn how to roll with the punches.
1. Chapter 1

**Wow, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I'm actually posting something on this cite instead of just reading other people's work. Well, this is my first fanfic, and I plan on writing more of this even if no one likes it. Hell, if even one person follows this I'll probable die from happiness. But warning, don't expect the chapters to always be this long, I have no idea how this happened to be honest.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, I only own my OCs and my lovely laptop.**

* * *

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing. The ocean waves lapped at the shore lazily and the pale sand spread out from horizon to horizon. Palm trees and little sea shells dotted the shore and—

 **VOLLEYBALL!**

Sam dived for the ball and managed to reach it just in time, keeping it in the air. Her friend and teammate, Ashlyn, set the ball while Conner spiked it over the net and won their team a point, as well as the match.

"HELL YEAH!" Sam cheered and Conner whooped in celebration. The two ran to each other and shared a double high-five before going to stand behind Ashlyn by the net. All of them had the same victorious grin on their faces as they looked upon the defeated team. John, Rick, and Izzy hung their heads in defeat and were all covered in sand, though the other team wasn't far behind in sand coverage.

"As agreed on at the beginning of the match," Ashlyn declared loudly, hers and her teammates' grins growing wider with each word, "you three will pay for all our meals until this time tomorrow." At the mention of the deal, the three defeated teens groaned loudly.

Conner ducked under the net and went to lay a comforting hand on John's shoulder. "Don't worry, bro," he said cheerfully, "we promise we won't eat up _all_ your money. Right guys?" he turned his grinning face back to his teammates.

Ashlyn and Sam giggled softly before sharing a look. Together, the two of them consider the offer for a moment with a thoughtful face and the other team paled. "Well…" Ashlyn drawled. "We won't eat up _all_ of it…"

"But we can't guaranty that there will be much _left_ …" Sam finished with a drawl of her own. Their three friends looked at them in horror will Conner laughed.

"Kidding! Kidding!" Sam laughed and waved off their horrified expressions. "We know we're evil, but we're not _that_ evil." She said with a grin and laughed alongside Ashlyn when they breathed a sigh of relief.

The six of them stood around and joked a little while longer before they unanimously agreed that it was too hot to stay outside any longer and started making their way to the beach house not that far from them. They were silent as they made it up the stairs of the porch and to the sliding glass door, but as soon as they entered the heaven known as an air-conditioned roomed, they all let out a sigh of relief.

Sam and Rick barely made it inside the door before they were both on the cool tile floor. They pressed their cheeks against the floor and let out content sighs. The other four shook their heads at their antics and made their way to the kitchen that was just off to the right when they entered. Izzy collapsed into one of the stools at the counter and pressed her head to its cool surface and let out a sigh similar to Sam's and Rick's.

The last three standing moved to the fridge and grabbed six chilled sodas from within. "Heads up, people!" Conner said and Rick and Sam pushed themselves into a sitting position. When Conner saw that they were up right, he threw two sodas their way. They caught the sodas with little trouble and held them to the back of their necks to try and cool themselves down faster. Ashlyn placed a soda in front of Izzy, who turned her head so she could see the soda without lifting her head from the counter. She reached out and dragged the soda over to her before opening it. She was forced to lift her head off the counter to drink but quickly returned her forehead to the counter top when she was done.

"Why most summer be so _hot_?" Rick whined as he collapsed onto the floor again.

"Because it is summer and a season, so therefore beyond the powers of us mere mortals to change." Sam said as she opened her soda and took a drink. She felt the cool liquid pass through her body and begin to cool it down.

"But we have the awesome thing called air-conditioning," Conner said in a dramatic voice, "which gives us mortals the ability to stay cool in the god forsaken heat." Ashlyn chuckled into her soda.

"A toast to air-conditioning then, for saving us from the heat of summer!" she said cheerfully. Everyone held up their drinks and gave a toast to the invention of air-conditioning, smiles dancing across each of their faces. After a half hour of cooling off and chatting in the kitchen, the six of them chose who would get the three showers first while the other three waited. Sam, John, and Izzy got the showers first and raced off to their rooms to get clean cloths while the other three stayed in the kitchen chatting. An hour later saw all six of them lounging around in the upstairs loft area freshly showered and sporting new clothes.

They sat around the coffee table with various chairs from around the room playing 'Cards Against Humanity' while they planned what they would do the next day and waiting for Izzy's parents to return. They had gone to the nearby town for the day in the morning while the teens had stayed at the beach house for some 'adult-free' time. They had also promised to come back with food, so that none of the teenagers in the room had to show off (or lack of) cooking skills.

In the end, Rick won the game, though he was closely followed by Ashlyn. Izzy's parents weren't home yet so they decided to hook up Izzy's laptop to the TV to watch some videos so they didn't have to crowd around the tiny computer screen. As soon as Izzy loaded up her home screen, Sam reached out and swiped the laptop from her lap and started typing in the search bar.

"Hey!" Izzy protested but Sam just shushed her.

"This is a matter of up most importance, Izzy." Sam said gravely as she hit ENTER on the keyboard. Izzy just scoffed at that.

"Really? And what would that be?" she challenged. The other four in the room looked up at the TV to see a list of links leading to sites that had the first subbed episode of One Piece, a crowd favorite, loaded.

"I have been informed on my way here," Sam began dramatically as she clicked onto one of the links and opened one of her favorite sites and turned to look at Rick with a sad look, though you could see amusement in her eyes, "that our dear friend Richard has never seen One Piece."

Izzy gasped in mock horror and looked at Rick with sad eyes as she tried to fight an excited grin from making its way onto her face. Conner and John looked at him in disbelief.

"Dude, how have you not seen One Piece yet?" Conner said.

"Yeah, it's like a requirement or something when you become friends with those two." John said.

Ashlyn hit both of the bothers on the shoulders. "Hush you two. Just because you four become friends because of that show doesn't mean that you made _all_ your friends because of it."

"Yes it does."

"It's either they already know about it—"

"—or we corrupt them with it afterwards!"

"Yeah!" the brothers shared a double high-five and Ashlyn sigh at their childish nature. She turned to Rick, who was watching everything happen with a confused expression.

"Don't worry, the show isn't that bad actually." She said as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"What?" he said, still very much confused on how him telling one of his friends that he had never seen a show was such a big deal.

"Don't worry," Sam spoke up as she started up the video. "We're starting you up with the Subbed version. In a different language and you have to get used to reading the subtitles, but in the end _way_ better than the dubbed version." The opening song started playing and she clicked the full-screen option and instantly filled the TV and computer screen with the show's first opening sequence.

Rick watched the opening with a confused expression still on his face, but now he seemed genuinely curious about the show that he had heard his friends talk so much about. The others leaned back in their seats and got ready to enjoy another marathon of one of their favorite shows.

Because they all knew it was going to turn into a marathon.

* * *

It had turned into a marathon, and by the time Izzy's parent got back with food, the Straw Hats had just made it to Usopp's island. The teens had a quick break for food before rushing back up the stairs to continue their marathon with now full stomachs.

They didn't stop until it was midnight, when Izzy's parents had said enough is enough and ordered everyone to bed. The teens left grudgingly, but made sure to bookmark their progress so that they could continue it in the morning before going to town.

And as the other five had hoped, when Rick finally went to bed that night, he was completely hooked. Now they just had be careful not to spoil anything for him.

The next morning, Sam was the first one up. She still had her internal alarm from school which had her waking up at six no matter what time she went to sleep, which meant that she got first dibs on the bathroom and shower. After she had had a quick shower and gotten dressed in a dark grey tank top and black shorts, she went down stairs to the kitchen to wait for the others with her short blonde hair still wet. Her wallet was in her back pocket as well as a little pocket note book and pencil. Over her shoulder was a bag that held sun screen, sunglasses, some Band-Aids (hey, you never know), and her prized ocarina.

She had just stepped in front of the sliding glass door that lead out to the beach when she saw a light coming from the shore. Sam stopped in front of the door and looked out at the beach. Curious, and looking for something to wake her up some more, she put on her sandals and headed out to the beach.

The light, it seemed, was coming from something buried just under the sand near the water's edge. She walked up to it curiously and kneeled down to get a better look at it. What could possibly make that kind of light? Flashlight? Phone? If it was anything electronic, than it was more than likely ruined, though the fact that it was still giving off light while buried under wet sand was amazing.

Sam scraped away the sand from the buried object. She stopped when she had done so and stared at the neckless in confusion. The light had disappeared, so at least dimmed, when she had uncovered the necklace. The necklace in question was just an emblem shaped like a circle with a blue sapphire in the center and a string that let it hang around someone's neck. She tilted her head to the side as she continued to stare at the piece of jewelry. She reached out and picked up the necklace to examine it closer. As she was wiping off the wet sand that covered most of the emblem, she heard a roaring sound come from the sea. She looked up in alarm and saw—

 _Was that a hand!?_

Her eyes widen in shock and she tried to scramble back out of reach of the _giant fucking hand made of water_ that had come from the sea and was trying to grab her. She didn't get far though, and soon the _fucking hand of water_ had grabbed her and dragged her under.

She tried to scream but only succeeded on making air bubbles and losing her precious oxygen. Sam struggled and thrashed around in the _fucking hand of water_ , the necklace still firmly in her clinched fist, but the grip around her never loosened. Her vision started going black as she was pulled farther and farther away from shore. _Is this the end?_ She thought idly. Just as she was about to give up her losing battle and lose consciousness, the _fucking hand of water_ released her and she dropped to the floor and gasped for air.

 _Oh, thank god! AIR!_ Sam cried mentally as she gasped for air, not having the energy to say those words out loud. When she was able to breath normally again, she took in her surroundings. The _fucking hand of water_ had dropped her off in what looked like the entrance hall of a castle that had been under water for a few hundred years, minus, you know, _the water_. She looked behind her and saw the _fucking hand of water_ disappearing into a wall of, you guessed it, water.

"I'm losing my mind…" Sam said softly to herself. She looked at the wall of water and stared as a fish swam past. She stared after for a few moments. "Defiantly losing my mind…"

She turned away from the wall of water and looked around. She still wasn't over the whole _fucking hand of water_ reaching out of the sea and kidnapping her, but at least it hadn't dropped her into a room full of psychopaths, so that's a plus. And with no one around, that meant she could explore to her heart's content. That is, until she ran into someone.

She slowly got to her feet and looked around the entrance hall. It was really dim, and when she looked up, she couldn't ever see the ceiling which was covered in thick shadows. The light that reached in from outside the underwater castle gave Sam enough light to see what was around, so she wasn't _too_ far underwater, but still… walking around in an underwater castle while still being able to breath _normally_ without any equipment was making Sam's head spin so she stopped thinking about it. For now at least.

She slowly made her way deeper in to the castle until she reached an open door way at the end of the hall. The hall in front of her was covered in thicker shadows than the one she was standing in. She turned around to study the hall behind her. The only thing that served as a reminder that she was underwater was the open door that showed the underwater sea on the other side of the threshold.

She looked back at the dark hall in front of her and suddenly felt a feeling of foreboding. A part of her didn't want to continue forward but another part didn't want to be stuck in the first room. The whole place reminded her of some of the dungeons that you would have in a video game. All is peaceful in the first few rooms until you reach a locked door (that you happen to have found a key for) or an archway that leads into a room that doesn't have as much light. Then, after you've made it halfway across the room, all the enemies decide that that's the perfect moment to attack and give Sam a heart attack. Yeah, she _really_ hoped that nothing like that happened because a) she didn't know how to fight, b) she had no weapons to defend herself with, even if she didn't know how to use them, and c) she had no idea where she was. At least in video games, you kinda know what you're up against.

Sam blinked when she started hearing a soft ringing sound and noticed that the area surrounding her and gotten lighter. Looking down, she noticed that the necklace she was holding (how she hadn't dropped it already is a mystery) had started glowing again. It wasn't glowing too brightly, but it was just enough to pierce the gloom in front of her for about ten feet. Plenty of space to give her a heads up if someone decides to jump out at her.

Confident now that she could see what was in front of her better, Sam started down the dark hall with the neckless held out in front of her to brighten her path. As she walked, she noticed just how _empty_ the place was. There was nothing on the walls or floor. Sure some stray pebbles and corals near the walls, but other than that, it was bare stone that had been worn away by time. Here and there were doorways leading into rooms or other halls. Most were sealed shut but a few looked like someone, or something, had knocked them down with a great amount of force. Some looked like someone had been trying to get in, while others looked like someone had been trying to get _out_.

 _Great,_ Sam thought with a shiver as she looked into one such room that had had its door knocked down, _it's like a horror game. Please no jump scares._

Just as she had thought that, she heard something shift inside the room. She went wide eyed and gasped before she quickly covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming and in a vain attempt to cover up her heavy breathing. She looked into the room fearfully and knowing that whatever was inside already knew she was there because of her necklace/light, she slowly raised said object over her head to light up the room.

Inside the room she saw rotten chairs, tables, and book shelves, the books long gone. Nothing living, which didn't help her nerves. She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. A sound too much like what one would think a spider would make come from by her feet and she stiffened. Slowly, ever so slowly, careful not to make any sudden movement though she doubted it mattered, she looked down at her feet while holding her breath and saw—

A crab.

She stared at it blankly as it crawled sideways out from under the door and then down the hall into the gloom. Well, she _was_ in an underwater castle, so it wasn't that surprising that there was a crab. The thing that really got her was that she hadn't seen any form of life since the fish at the front door. After a moment of thought, the blonde started off after the crab.

"Ooooh, I'm so going to die. I'm _so_ going to die…" Sam mumbled under her breath as she walked down the dark hallway. She was walking faster now that she actually had the vague outline of a plan. The blonde went over all the books, movies, and games that had had characters walking around in near pitch blackness. There weren't many, because she didn't like the horror genera, but she _knew_ not to follow the spiders into the woods. Or crabs into dark not-so-underwater castles in this case.

Thank you, Harry Potter.

She continued mumbling as she speed walked down the hallway. She continued like that even after she had caught up to the crab. It was _fast_ and clearly late for a very important date.

Her eyes were on the crab, so she didn't see the light until she was about eight feet away from it. The light was coming from the other side of a door that was open just enough for the crab to crawl its way passed.

The blonde slows to a stop five feet away and stares at the door suspiciously. It was the first room that she's seen that had its own light. She stood outside the door for a minute arguing with herself about whether or not she should go inside. Usually, when in a creepy place, you try to avoid the rooms with the creepy light if you can. But you usually end up going inside anyway. In the end, she throw her hands in the air while thinking _fuck it_ and walked up to the door.

She braced herself as she grabbed hold of the door handle and pulled it open before she could change her mind. The room on the other side of the door was plain, as in it didn't have any broken and rotting tables and chairs. The only thing in the room was the crab and a glowing pool of water. The blonde looked at the pool and blinked. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The pool was still glowing.

"Well, _that's_ not creepy at all," she said to herself in false humor. She walked into the room to get a closer look at the pool to see if she could find what was making it glow. As soon as she had taken five steps into the room, she heard to tell-tale signs of the door closing behind her.

She spun around on a dime with her eyes wide and ran back to the door, or at least where there _should_ have been a door. The door was gone, leaving only a smooth stone wall in its place. Sam could feel her heart racing and her breathing quicken. She ran her hands over the smooth stone, trying desperately to find some clue as to how to get the door back. When she found none, she started banging on the wall in a futile attempt to smash her way through.

"I would stop banging on the wall like that if I were you, you'll only hurt yourself."

Sam's fist froze an inch away from the wall at the sound of the voice behind her. The voice was soft but still held power and demanded respect. She gulped but didn't dare move anymore. It was never good when you enter an _empty_ room only to be trapped and hear a _voice_ behind you.

Yeah, this isn't a horror movie _at all_.

The blonde stood perfectly still and a silence fell onto the underwater room. _Please be a dream, please be a dream,_ she thought as she felt her panic rising. _Please be a dream, please be a—_

"Would you turn around?"

 _God fucking damn-it people!_ Sam roared silently as her heart jumped to her throat. A cold sweat formed on her temples as she slowly turned around on the voice's request. She only moved her head, not really wanting to face whatever it was behind her and looked over her shoulder with wide eyes. What she saw dropped her jaw to the floor and made her question her sanity.

Standing in the pool that had led to her confinement in the room was a man made of water. Correction, the _pool_ had turned into a man who was now looking at Sam expectantly, if a _man of water_ could show emotion.

The man of water looked just like that, a man of water. Sam couldn't tell any real features about the man, she couldn't even tell if he _was_ a man. The only thing working for her in that department was that he sounded like one. It was just a mass of moving water in the rough shape of a human. In his center seemed to a glowing ball of currents that swirled around each other. She would have been entranced by the display, if she wasn't already so terrified.

"It's is a pleasure to meet you, Samantha Dru Noble." It said and crossed one of its watery hands over its chest and bowed. Meanwhile, Sam was trying not to panic even more over the fact that it _knew her name_ , and not just the name she introduced herself as, but her _full_ name. Yeah, no mini panic attacks over here— _not._

Now, she didn't trust it facing her back so she turned around and pressed her back up against the wall, trying to put as much distance between her and the waterman. It seemed to sigh at that and said, "I'm not going to hurt you, I only want to talk."

"About what?" Sam snapped, startling herself with how steady and sharp her voice sounded. She sure didn't feel that confident and she knew that the thing in front of her knew it too, but he still had the decency to look impressed.

(At least she thought he looked impressed.)

"I have an offer to give you," it said and when the blonde made no move to interrupt him, he continued. "I am sure you have many questions, but I assure I will answer all the ones that I can. Before I do though, it would only be polite if introductions are made. Seeing as I already know your name—" _Obviously,_ Sam thought humorlessly. "The only introduction is mine."

The mass of water rose a little high, "I am Water, the elemental embodiment of all bodies of water across the worlds." He paused, as if waiting for a reaction and Sam used the moment to raise her hand in the air like she was in school and was about to ask a question.

"Eh, dude. That's a terrible name. You should call yourself Aquarius or something." Sam said, not having waited for 'Water' to let her speak. She may have raised her hand, but she wasn't in school. Old habits die hard though.

Water seemed taken aback by Sam declaration and tilted its 'head' to the side. "Really?" when he received a nod, he hummed before shrugging. "Well, if it makes you more comfortable, you may call me Aquarius." Sam nodded and the newly dubbed Aquarius shifted his position again.

"Now that names are out of the way, let's get down to the real reason I brought you here." He started as the blonde looked at him in shock. _Wait, he was the giant fucking hand of doom!?_ Sam shouted in her head. Well, it made sense and he _was_ made out of water, it wasn't that far of a stretch of the imagination to connect him to the hand.

"As I have told you, I am the elemental embodiment of the element of water. Now, there are three others like me. One for earth, fire, and air." he shifted again, like he was nervous or uncomfortable about what came next. "We elements are prone to… ah, _disagreements_ , which more than likely turn violent before they are resolved. To make sure that our disagreements don't get too far out of hand, we had decided that to avoid the destruction of worlds, we would chose champions to fight in our stead.

"Each element has a current name for their champions, and mine are known as Sea Dragons." Aquarius shifted again and Sam leaned in closer. "They are not actually dragons, mind you, but they fight with the same heart and passion of a dragon." He added at the look of disappointment of Sam's face. She was looking forward to hearing about real dragons.

"The term 'Sea Dragon' also refers to the shared changes in appearances that all my champions had, as well as their strength." Aquarius chuckled at Sam when he noticed her eyes widen. "Nothing too drastic, they still had to blend in with others of their kind, but enough to tell other champions who was whose."

A paused passed over the room as Sam went over the information in her head with one arm crossed over her chest and the other resting under her chin. She pushed away from the wall and took a few steps forward. Aquarius hadn't attacked her yet, nor had he drowned her before, so she felt a little safer around him. Plus, he was giving her background information, which he didn't have to do. Or, you know, he could be stalling.

"Why are you telling me this?" she said as she looked up at the very element of water. He was several feet taller than her, so she had to look up to meet his face, or at least what she thought was his face.

If a globe of water could smile, Sam would bet that he was doing it right now. "Because I would like to ask you to become one of my champions."

Sam looked at him blankly as his words settled in, then her brain finally caught up to what he had said. "EEHHHHH?!" she said as her eyes popped out of their sockets and jaw went to the floor for a second time in that room. "You," she pointed at him, "want me," she pointed at herself, "to be one of your Sea Dragons?"

"Yes."

"What the hell, man?!" Sam suddenly yelled. "Are you insane?! I'm not a fighter, I never was! Look at this!" she said as she raised one of her arms and waved it around. "Look at all this nonexistent muscle! Look, I'm honored and all, but I wouldn't survive a second in a fight between champions." The blonde shook her head furiously, absently noting that her hair was now dry, before crossing her arms in front of her to form an **X**. "No, nadda, not gonna happen, buddy."

Aquarius tilted his head to the side and crossed his 'arms', "Why of course you wouldn't survive in a fight between seasoned champions."

Sam deadpanned. "Thanks."

"But no champion started out at full power. Do children have the same strength of an adult? No, they have to grow into it." He gave Sam a pointed look and she shut her mouth, stopping the retort she was about to fire at him. "Every champion is trained before they are expected to fight others, though sometimes there are exceptions."

"But why me?" Sam asked. That question had been playing over and over again in the back of her head like a broken record ever since she had been dropped off in this castle. And she was going to get her answer, one way or another.

"Because," he said as he leaned forward and pointed one of his watery fingers at her chest, "You have the same kind of heart that I look for in all my champions." He bumped his finger against her chest, right over her heart, before returning to his former position of towering over her.

She looked down at her chest and placed a hand over her heart. After a few minutes of silence, she looked back up at Aquarius. "You really think I could be a champion?"

He nodded, "Yes."

"Ok then," she said as she crossed her arms and looked up at the element of water. "When do I start?"

"Well," Aquarius said, sounding quite smug, "As soon as you set foot into your world, you will become a champion but you will only _officially_ become a champion after all your training is down."

"And how long will that take?" Sam asked.

"Normally, three to five year, but for you, about ten."

"WHAT?!" Sam shouted. Like, she knew she was weak but that's just taking it too far now!

Aquarius held his hands up in surrender and calmly replied. "Not only are you yet to turn into an adult, but as you have said, you are not the picture of fitness." Sam grudgingly agreed with him, but it couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?

"But," he said as he held his hand out, palm up, "I have a plan to even the playing field for you, and in the end, it could even make you one of the strongest." Sam looked up in interest now and watched in amazement as water rose up from his hand and started spinning around in a tight little ball. Within seconds the spinning ball of water had solidified and had turned into a large orange, though the blonde could tell instantly that it wasn't a normal orange.

For starters, its fruit tree must have messed up it color scheme, because the leaves and stem of the fruit were orange while the actual fruit part was a leafy green with a strange swirl pattern. In fact, it kinda looked like a—

"Devil Fruit?!"

Aquarius blinked (or at least she thought he blinked), and said, "Yes, it is. How did you know?"

Sam stared at the fruit in disbelief, not knowing if she should turn around and run the other away because she was getting a bad feeling about this or grin like an idiot because she gets to eat a devil fruit. She chose instead to answer the waiting element's question. "It's part of a show I like…"

The element seemed to brighten at that and said happily, "Ah, One Piece, yes? This makes things much easier then." he held the devil fruit for her to take. "Eat this, and you'll be able to give yourself any kind of boost you need whenever you need it."

The blonde took the devil fruit and held it carefully. She wanted to know how the fact that her liking One Piece made things easier, but first she had some important questions to have answered. "What fruit is this?"

"The Buff Buff no Mi, or more commonly known as the Boost Boost no Mi. In theory, it allows the eater to give themselves any kind of boost you can think of, ranging from strength and speed to muffling your own footsteps so they are almost impossible to hear. Its powers are quite limitless, and the only thing standing in your way from complete mastery in your imagination." Aquarius paused before chuckling. "I take it you approve?"

"Yes," Sam breathed. If it lived up to its name, there were going to be _so_ many times she can abuse her ability. And the first name of the fruit gives her an idea…

This is going to be so much _fun_ if she's right!

She looked up at Aquarius with a wide toothy grin. "This is mine?" She asked, almost bouncing with excitement. Oh, the possibilities with this fruit, and the number of times she is going to get to troll people!

The element nodded and Sam had to stop herself from eating it right then and there, because one, it was going to taste horrible and she needed to steal herself and two, there was one little detail that was bothering her.

"But if I eat this and am a Sea Dragon, wouldn't I lose what makes me, you know, a _Sea Dragon_?" She asked, lowering the Devil Fruit form her mouth.

Aquarius waved off her concerns. "I am water, I'm not stupid enough to leave one of my own champions at a disadvantage. You'll lose your Devil Fruit ability in water and when touching Sea Stone but other than that, the only thing that changes is you may find it harder to use your Sea Dragon abilities. But I see is as a fair trade off."

Sam thought about it and had to agree. It wasn't like she was losing a part of her abilities permanently, she would have the normal Devil Fruit user weakness (minus the hammer part) and her Sea Dragon abilities would be harder to use, but not _impossible_. A fair trade indeed for a fruit that can troll the world.

Sam looked down at the Devil Fruit in her hands and took a deep breath. She held it for a second before she quickly took the first bite of her fruit. The instant the juices of the fruit hit her tongue, she had to force herself not to gag and finish taking her first bite. It tasted _horrible_! She couldn't even find the words to describe it and she hoped she never would. Like— _dear God_ that was nasty!

She only managed one more bite before she couldn't take it anymore and dropped the fruit and held her hands to her stomach panting.

"That," she managed to say between pants after a few minutes of gagging, "was the most _horrible_ thing I have ever tasted. They weren't kidding about the taste…" she looked at the fallen Devil Fruit in distain and edged away from it. The ability _better_ be worth it.

Aquarius chuckled and with a wave of his hand, the partly eaten fruit dissolved back into water and flowed back into the pool. "Now you are ready to start your new life."

Sam gingerly got to her feet and looked up at the element. She opened and closed her mouths several times before she finally said, "I'll take it I won't be seeing my family again?" her voice seemed suddenly small in the room. The element before her studied her carefully. He knew this question was coming and was surprise that she took this long to ask it, and the fact she asked it at all. Most either asked it at the beginning or never at all so they could cling to the hope that one day, one day they would see their family again.

"Yes," he said and watched as her shoulders slumped. "But seeing as you're underage, here at least," he said and instantly Sam was looking at him again, "You'll have to inform them of your new status. Write them a letter and I'll make sure that it is delivered."

Sam beamed up at him and nodded. A small twinkle made its way into her eyes and she grinned up at the element. "Message in a bottle, I take it?" she said playfully.

"Yep!" he said and Sam had to stop herself from falling to the floor.

She straightened and looked around the room. She didn't see a door. "So… how do I get out of here?"

Aquarius seemed to smile and said simply. "I'll take care of that. I'll be sending you to the weakest Blue so you'll have a chance to adjust before you have to make it to the HQ in Paradise."

Sam looked at the element in confusion and tried to ignore the growing sense of dread in her stomach. "Wait, what?"

"Well, off you go!" Aquarius said there cheerfully and with a wave of one of his watery arms, Sam disappeared.

It felt like she had become suddenly weightless at the same moment her vision went black. A second later, she felt gravity return and her feet slam in to the ground. She blinked a few times to get her vision back and was greeted with the sight of the ocean stretching out in front of her for as far as her eyes could see.

She looked around in wonder and noticed that it was night time and that her wardrobe had changed slightly. She was wearing the same top and shorts and still had her bag and sandals, but now she had a blue scarf wrapped around her neck with a single long tail behind her and a blue sash around her waist.

 _I guess it's so I can fit in? Or maybe it's part of being a champion that he hadn't told me about,_ the blonde thought to herself. She looked back out at the sea in front of her and remembered what Aquarius had said;

" _I'll be sending you to the weakest Blue so you'll have a chance to adjust before you_ _to_ _have to make it to the HQ in Paradise._ "

A cold shiver traveled down her spine and she felt herself pale. _No, he couldn't have…_ Sam thought to herself firmly, but another voice whispered.

 _But what about the Devil Fruit?_

Sam closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. She opened her eyes and set her face in a determined expression before she slowly turned around. What she saw behind her almost made her heart stop.

It was a town, nothing too abnormal or shocking about it, but Sam hardly looked at it when her eyes instantly went to the one building that towered over the others. Even in the dark and all the way at the docks, she could clearly see the words at the top of the tower.

 **Marines**.

"Ah shit," Sam breathed with wide eyes. She couldn't believe it, she was… _No! Just because it looks like it doesn't mean it is!_ She told herself furiously as she shook her head and glared at the building in the distance. _But… if there is even a small chance, I better check it out_.

With a determined expression, Sam started down the road and made her way towards the tower as quickly as possible. It didn't help that it was nighttime and that there was no one out to ask directions, but she made it to the Marine Base front gate in under twenty minutes.

Marine Base.

She didn't stop at the gate but instead turned left and started walking around its walls. After a minute of walking she stopped and looked at the wall in front of her. She almost felt ashamed on the Marines' behalf on how poor the wall was. It had so many hand and foot holds that it was almost laughable, not to mention that fact that it wasn't very tall.

After giving the wall one last look, the blonde backed up until she hit the wall of the house across for the wall. She paused for a moment before she ran forward and vaulted over the wall. When she landed, she rolled to a stop on her knees. She paused for a mount to listen if anyone had seen her. She didn't know how she felt about people seeing her just yet. But seriously, no portals?

She looked across the court yard she found herself in and froze when she saw a figure tied to a wooden cross in the middle of it. A cloud had passed in front of the moon, making it even darker out so she could barely see any features. After a little war with herself, Sam decided she wanted to get this done with the cover of darkness and not in the middle of the day.

So, trembling slightly she got to her feet and slowly made her way towards the figure, careful to make her steps as quiet as possible. When she got within five feet of him, she stopped and stared.

"Ah shit," she said and at the same time the cloud that was in front of the moon move, to reveal a teen in a white shirt, black pants and boots, a green haramaki, and three gold earrings on his left ear. It also revealed that Roronoa Zoro was every much awake and was glaring right at her.

 _Fuuuuuuuu—_

" _*_ Anata wa ittai darena ndesu ka?" he demanded.

 _Wait, what?_

The silence continued to pass between us and I could tell that with every second, Zoro was getting more and more annoyed while I was still trying to understand what had just happened.

"Anata wa ittai darena ndesu ka?" he growled again and confirmed my worst fear.

I was in the One Piece world, and _everyone spoke Japanese._

"God damn-it people," I groaned.

"Huh?" was all Zoro had to say.

* * *

Somewhere in the first half of the Grand Line on the edge of the Calm Belt, a pool, much like the one in the room Sam had been in, had a ripple pass through it, breaking its clear surface. One of the occupants of the room the pool was located in looked up from what he was reading and looked to pool.

"So? How'd it go?" he asked as the others in the room stopped what they were doing to listen in.

"Just as planned," Aquarius said as he rose out of the water, "Soon we will have another here with us."

"Did you remember to give her a translator?"

The element stilled for a moment before he started moving again. "Ah, I know I was forgetting something."

Silence.

"God have mercy on her soul."

* * *

 **This is where I'll put anything that is said in Japanese in Sam's p.o.v. I used Google Translate so _hopefully_ it isn't too bad.**

 ***Who the hell are you?**


	2. Chapter 2

**OH MA GAWD, I HAVE FOLLOWERS, WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! And why does it feel like I'm starting a cult? But anyway, here's the next chapter. Not as long as the last one but somehow I still got it passed the four thousand word mark without realizing it... _And_ it could have been longer... I honestly don't know how that works, I just write.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Never have, never will. What I _do_ own is my OCs and my sketch book.**

* * *

"Brilliant. Just brilliant! Drop me in a world with no way to communicate, why don'tcha? Oh, wait—you already _did_!" Sam yelled as she kicked a pebble on the ground in her mini rant. The sun had risen about an hour ago, casting shadows across the small clearing that she had found in the forest. She had made her way there after gawking at Zoro for a little while. She wanted to be _sure_ that she was in Shells Town before she did anything.

Luckily, Zoro had been the only one to see her, but really people? What _Marine_ Base doesn't have patrols or something at night? What if pirates attacked? The screaming villagers would wake them up?

She almost, _almost_ , wanted to walk right up to captain Morgan and tell him that he was an idiot and that he needed to set up patrols at once, but she liked her health the way it was, thank you. And there was the little thing about them speaking _Japanese,_ of all things. Yes, she knows a random word or two, and recognized some phases, but that was _it_. Not enough to hold a conversation with, nor talk back to a Marine Captain.

"Grah," she groaned as she held her head in her hands and dropped to the ground to sit there with her legs crossed and her head in her lap. She let out a tired sigh and laced her fingers together and braced her forehead against them to stare at the ground. What does she do now? Not only does she not know the language, but she doesn't know anyone here either, and knowing characters from a manga and anime doesn't count.

Sighing, she straighten and pulled off her bag and brought it to her lap. One quick look told her she still had everything, and that they were all in one piece. (Ha, pun.) She quickly checked her pockets as well, and was pleased to find that her notebook and pencil were still there, along with her wallet. _Like American money is going to do me any good…_ she thought bitterly as she opened her wallet to check if her ID and money, though now useless, was still there.

Her eyes widen in surprise and she pulled out one of the bills that were tucked neatly in the folds of the wallet. The bill she pulled out wasn't an American dollar but…

" _Beli_?" Sam said, not believing her eyes. She looked at the bill in her hands her a second longer before she looked back into her wallet. Sure enough, every single dollar bill had been turned into Beli. I stared at the bills as I fingered through them. The blonde tried to count them, but she didn't really know how the currency system worked in One Piece, only that it was modeled after the yen. She considered the money in her wallet for one more moment before jumping to her feet and shaking her fist at the sky.

"Beli, you give my beli but you don't give me a fucking _translator_!?" she hollered at the sky in her anger. "Come _on_ , people! What good is money if I don't understand anyone?!" her yells rang through the air and she growled under her breath and started pacing the small clearing.

She had to make a plan of action. Running into things blind wasn't that safe of a plan, and running around like an idiot could end just as badly. She knows about _where_ she is; Shells Town in the East Blue, but she doesn't know _when_. She knows a rough estimate from the fact that Zoro was here, but the here and now could be a week, days, or even _hours_ away from Luffy chaotically waltzing his way into the quiet town.

She stopped as she backtracked her thoughts. Luffy. He was coming here, that much was for sure, but the question was; what was she going to do about it?

The answer? She doesn't know.

Every One Piece fan's dream is to join the crew, but Sam wasn't going to kid herself. She didn't know the language, she didn't know how to even use the _money_ here, she was basically as useful as a cardboard box in a fight at the moment, and many more things she didn't care to list. Yes, she was tempted to try her hand and see if Luffy would let her join, but as she was, she would just be dead weight. And that ship doesn't need dead weight, not with what she _knows_ they'll be doing.

 _No,_ she decide, _I'm not going to join, even_ if _I really, really want to try and change the plot, they'll be just fine without me. They were before._ With that decided, Sam went about another question that has been plaguing her mind; how the hell does she use her Devil Fruit?

She stopped her pacing and looked down at her hands. Aquarius had said that the fruit she had eaten had been the 'Buff' or 'Boost' fruit, and gave her the ability to give her a boost of any kind. He hadn't said if there was a limit on what kind of boost, but seeing as he said 'to herself' means that she can't be giving other people speed or power boost. In theory, at least. But, when he had said 'Buff', it had given her an idea.

What if her Devil Fruit ability acted like the buffs from video games? If that was true, than the number of buffs she could make where truly limited by only her imagination. _That_ met a whole lot of trolling in the future, but only if she figured out how to activate the damn thing.

The blonde closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself faster. It wasn't really hard, all she had to do was imagine herself keeping pace with a car on the highway, like when you're bored and you imagine someone running along the side of the road. She opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She didn't _feel_ any different, and a quick run around the clearing told her that that method hadn't worked.

She frowned and knotted her eyebrows together as she looked down at herself. Clearly _imagining_ the desired outcome wasn't going to cut it, so what will? In all the episodes and manage chapters she's read, the characters call out the name of what they're about to do, but…

"You have _got_ to be kidding me…" Sam said as she looked at her hand. "Please, oh please be kidding me…" She cringed away from an unseen being and brought her hands up over her head seemingly to protect herself from the very _idea_. Sucking in a breath, she said slowly, " **Speed Boost**."

As if some higher being was mocking her, Sam suddenly felt a rush of energy pass over and _through_ her body and her eyes widen. At the same moment she felt the energy going through her, a set of softly glowing blue rings passed from over her head to her feet. They were barely there for a second, and when they passed, a faint almost unnoticeable blue aura settled over her skin, about a centimeter thick.

She stared at her hands in disbelief before looking up and leveling a tree on the edge of the clearing with a nervous, but almost gleeful look. She bent her knees and braced herself, then she pushed off with all the strength she could muster. The very next second she was throwing her hands out and digging her heels into the dirt to stop herself from running face first in to the tree. When she finally stopped, her nose was only an inch away from the trunk.

She stumbled away from the tree and tripped over her own two feet, landing on her butt in the dirt. She stared at the tree with eyes wide with shock and panting heavily. She looked down at her shaking hands. A few long moments passed in silence until an impossible wide grin grew on her lips and she started giggling hysterically. The next minute found her throwing her head back as she laughed so hard she was left out of breath clutching her stomach.

Half an hour later, she finally stopped laughing and straightened up, her impossible wide grin still in place. A few more giggles made their way past her lips as she returned to her crossed legged position. She looked at her hand and waved it around in the air.

It felt… strange. Like when she was running, she saw everything in slow-motion like she was just walking on a morning stole, but she also _knew_ — _felt —_ everything moving faster than they should. It had felt like minutes were passing, but at the same time felt like time was passing normally. It was disorienting, and it surprised her so that instead of trying to run _around_ the tree, she ended up panicking and stopping herself.

She giggled as she watched her hand wave through the air. It was strange watching it move, everything slowed down as she moved around her hand (through she could still _feel_ time moving normally, if that made any sense) and noticed that the faint blue aura glowed a little brighter and left strikes in the air. There was also what could be an after image of her hand as she changed directions.

Sam stopped moving her hand, and the world went back to normal and the aura returned to its near invisible state. She fluxed her hand and moved in more carefully than before, resulting in her movements being slow and calculated. The result was, however, the blue glowed barely brighter than it was normally and fainter, shorter strikes, but the world didn't do its weird slow-down-but-stay-the-same thing. Sam grinned. So she could control the speed at which she moved, she just had to be careful about it. Now the next item on the list:

How to turn the damn thing off.

Sam's grin dropped as she considered the question serious. How _did_ she turn it off? She didn't want to always have a speed boost, though it _would_ be useful, but it was disorienting and would probable give her a headache after a while. So, to find a way to cancel her ability in a timely manner. For all she know, the thing could run on a timer. But from want she could gather from what she felt, it _didn't_ , so she needed a way to drop it. Wait, drop…

Sam sat up straight and looked down at herself with a determined, but curious expression. " **Drop** ," she said, her voice even, and at once, she felt the feeling of energy passing over and through her body, though this time it was leaving instead of entering. Like before, several softly glowing blue rings passed over her body, though unlike before, they started at her feet and ended over her head. The blue aura that had covered her body also faded.

What was new, though, was the sudden ache in her muscles, mostly in her legs and her one arm. She frowned at that and considered her aching arm seriously. So, after the boost, or 'buff' as she was starting to call it, was 'dropped', the physical effects of moving at those speeds finally take affected the body. So if her lefts a hundred pounds, it won't feel like she lifted a hundred pounds until _after_ the effect was dropped. That would be worrying in an actual fight, because she _knew_ she would have to move at those speed and faster if she wanted to survive the Grand Line, even if she only went into Paradise, and for much longer periods of time too. Hopefully she would get used to the stress of using her Devil Fruit.

Hopefully.

But actually using the Speed Boost in a fight would take some time to get used to, seeing that as soon as she tried to move faster than normal, her view of the world warped and she got disoriented. And she didn't even _want_ to think what it would feel like to use a Strength Boost _or_ the stress it'll put on her body. Oh, the horror.

(But that got her curious, what would a Defense Boost or Attack Boost feel like?)

Well, if she doesn't do too much heavy lifting, then it shouldn't hurt too bad, right? So, pushing her doubts aside, she sat up straight and took a deep breath, readying herself and—stopped short, a look of horror crossing her features.

"Oh my God," she breathed in a horrified whisper. She leaned her head back and pressed the heel of her palms to her eyes. "I have voice activated powers. _I have voice activated powers_." She leaned back far enough that gravity took over and she fell on her back, groaning up at the sky.

"God _damn-it_ ," she groaned. She almost felt embarrassed that she had to say what she was doing before doing it, but then remembered that no one else could probable understand her, though she had to be careful of people recognizing what she's saying after a while. And, she reasoned, if this world was anything like the manga and anime, everyone else would be shouting attacks too. Besides the embarrassing part, at least listening to other peoples' attack names would give her a heads up on what they're going to do next.

But still, voice activated powers? Who _has_ that anyway?

Suddenly, her stomach protested with a loud growl and the blonde groaned. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and for her, breakfast was _hours_ ago, though in Shells Town it was just starting for some late risers.

Almost at once, her stomach growled again and Sam's thoughts turned from the embarrassment of yelling out attacks (like, who has time for that in the middle of a battle anyway?) to food. She started drooling about all the things she could eat for (a late) breakfast and licked her lips. Half way through though, she stopped and adopted a confused expression. Something in her mouth didn't feel right…

She ran her tongue over her teeth again and stopped when she felt something long and _pointy_ where one of her canines should be. She rolled her tongue over that _canine_ for a minute before moving on to the next one. After a few minutes, she found that _all_ four of her canines where longer and pointier than she remembered them being, though how she just found this out is beyond her.

She remembered Aquarius saying something about changes in appearance but not _what_ would change. She sat up quickly and crawled over to her discarded bag that was laying a few feet away from her. Grabbing it, she opened the main pocket and searched frantically for her sunglasses. She doesn't have a mirror and she doesn't want to go looking for a reflective surface on the off chance that people could _see_ her before _she_ had a chance to see _herself_. Luckily though, her sunglasses had reflective lenses, so she had and improvised mirror already on her.

She found her sunglasses quickly enough and pulled them out. When she pointed the reflective side towards herself, she blinked in surprise and then blinked again to make sure she wasn't seeing thing. Sure enough, the two eyes in the lenses blinked back at the same time as her and she stared in wonder.

Instead of a pair of forest green eyes looking back at her, Sam saw a pair of striking sea-blue eyes that shone like jewels even though no light shone on them. And, instead of normal pupils that were round, these ones had a slight diamond shape to them, and the blonde could already imagine them turning into thin little slits when she walks into bright sun light.

She stared at her new set of eyes (it felt proper to call them that) for another minute before remembering her original mission and bared her teeth. Not much to her surprise because she had expected as much as soon as she felt them, all four of her canines where longer and definitely pointier. She clicked her teeth together a few time and nodded her head in solemn acceptance. It would _definitely_ hurt now if she bit her tongue.

Note to self: DON'T BITE TONGUE

After a few more minutes of angling the sunglass in different ways, Sam found that everything else about her was mostly the same. The only other major difference? She had _gills_ , and they _tickled_. Sam stared at them in wonder as she gentle ran a finger over one side of her neck, where her gills were. She giggled as her finger passed over them. The only reason she had seen them was because she had tilted her head to the side, which had made them stand out, otherwise they were barely visible lines on both sides of her neck.

 _Well, I guess that's what the scarf is for,_ the blonde thought as she ran a finger down the length of one of the gills, making her giggle. _And they're sensitive. Something I'll have to watch out for_ , she thought with a grimace. She'll just have to make sure no one grabs her around the neck in a fight. That would _not_ be fun.

Her stomach growled loudly again and she sighed. Looks like she'll have to go into town for some food. She gave her sunglasses one last look before putting them on. She didn't know how the town's people would react to her new appearance and didn't want the marines on her ass just yet. In fact, she never wanted them casing her. That would be bad for her health.

She quickly stuffed her notebook and wallet back into her back pocket and swung her bag over her shoulders as she got to her feet. Taking a moment to orient herself, she turned and started walking towards Shells Town. She walked for roughly ten minutes before she stepped out of the forest and onto the cobblestone road that lead into town. She paused for a moment, looking at everyone warily. When no one as much as looked in her direction she squared her shoulders and walked farther into town.

The familiar but still not understandable sound of Japanese reached her ears as she walked down the street. She looked around with wide eyes, trying to take everything in, not at all ashamed that she felt like a tourist. The people she passed on the street gave her sideways glances but she ignored them and in return they ignored her. She was careful though to make sure that her scarf covered her gills and made sure she didn't show any teeth when she smiled. She didn't know how they would react and she didn't fancy having an angry mob after her.

Soon enough, the blonde found the street where the market had set up and made a beeline to the nearest food stall. The first one she come across sold an array of fruits. Apples, oranges, pears, pineapples… and price signs!

Sam almost cried for joy when she saw that in front of each basket of fruit was a price that told you how much one of each fruit was so she didn't have to even ask the woman selling the fruit for the price. Ignoring the woman who was talking to her (she didn't understand her anyway, for all she knew she could be talking to the guy next to her) Sam eyed the different prices on the fruit as she reached for her wallet.

Deciding on what she wanted to buy, Sam waved to get the attention of the sales woman and held up two fingers and pointed to the apples and the pears. She _really_ hoped the woman got her meaning, because she didn't want to make a scene. She looked unsure for a moment and said something while holding up two fingers and pointing at the apples and then the pears.

Sam hesitated for a slit second before nodding in affirmation. The woman chirped something again and huffed in annoyance as she grabbed the right amount apples and pears and put them in a bag. _Probable mad that I didn't speak_ , Sam thought idly as she handed over the right amount of money and took the bag with her food. The money system was pretty easy to understand. All you had to do was look at the number on the bill and match it to the price tag, adding more bills if need be. Thankfully Sam had just the right amount of money for the fruit and left with a quick bow of thanks to the woman.

Walking back down the street after pocketing her wallet, Sam reached into the bag and pulled out one of her apples. She looked it over for a moment before taking a chuck out of it. Munching on it as she went, Sam let her mind and eyes wonder. Now that she wasn't trying to puzzle out her new abilities or on the hunt for food, she could focus on another important thing that had to be done.

Getting a letter to her parents.

Via Message-in-a-Bottle.

Scanning the area for any empty bottles she could snag for her message, Sam eventually spotted a dumpster in an alley near the docks that had a few bottles scattered around it. Spinning on the heel of her feet, Sam changed directions and made her way to the alley. Once she neared it, she threw her apple core into the dumpster and stooped down to sort through the bottles.

Finding one that didn't have any cracks and still had its cork mysteriously, the blonde stood and exited the alley and headed for the docks. The docks weren't very busy, just like in the show, so Sam easily found a place to sit in the shade to write her letter.

She took out her notebook and pencil and opened it to a new page. She brought the pencil down to rest of the page and—stopped. She had no idea what to say. What do you tell your parents when you suddenly took a job from waterman and got sent to a whole 'nother _universe_? _Hey, mom, guess what? I'm millions of miles away from home in a world full of monsters that can destroy a mountain_ with a single punch _, but don't worry! I'm perfectly healthy and happy!-_?

Ha-ha—yeah, how 'bout no.

Sam pondered the problem as she watch people walk pass. Some of them looked her way for a moment before continuing on their way. Once she even saw want looked like a marine patrol walk passed. Even as they walked passed and gave her pointed looks she stared at them in disbelief. _So you have patrols during the day but not at night when you really need them?! I can't believe you people!_ She thought and looked to the heavens.

Shaking her head at the marines as they rounded a corner and walking out of sight, she turned back to her unwritten letter with a frown. She stayed that way for a half hour, mauling over what had happened and how she could explain it, when she sighed in defeat. She'd write a brief summary of what happened—she didn't have a lot of space on the paper—and prayed that her parents believed her before they started a nationwide man hunt.

Writing in neat tiny scripted, Sam had her letter done and safely in the bottle she had found within the hour. She had even washed the bottle out to make sure there wasn't any of what was in it before (probable something alcoholic) she put her letter inside.

Standing, the blonde walked to the end of the pier and stood facing the ocean. She looked down at the bottle in her hand and then back at the sea in front of her. After a moment of silence, she shrugged and cocked her arm back. She gave the bottle a good toss and watched it sail through the air turning end over end. She watched as it reach the height of its journey before gravity took hold and pulled it back towards the water. She watched as it got closer and closer to the water until—

It got caught by a hand of water.

Sam's jaw hit the wood of the pier as she watched the hand wave back at her cheerfully before pulling itself and the bottle underwater and out of sight. Sam didn't know how long she stood there, but eventually she picked her jaw up off the ground and turned around.

She walked all the way back to her little clearing in the woods in a daze and only when she had seated herself on the ground and leaned back against a tree did she let the first tired groan escape her. "What have I gotten myself into…?" she muttered as she ran a hand over her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Sighing for what felt like the hundredth time that day before standing. She placed her two bags on the ground by the tree and walked to the center of the clearing. She does a few stretches to loosen up her muscles before taking a deep breath. She holds it for a second before releasing it.

" **Speed Boost** ," Sam says and watches the rings pass over her body leaving behind the faint blue aura. A grin makes its way onto her face. "Well, I might as well practice," she said.

* * *

She was back again, looking even worse for wear than the day before but somehow still the same wide smile on her face when she saw him. The pirate hunter had tried to scare her off the first night she had shown up out of nowhere, and had thought he had succeeded, with how she had hightailed it out of there, but the next day after sunset, she was back again.

He had at first tried warning her away with the marines, and when that didn't work, he moved onto plain open threats and insults. But no matter what he said to her, she always just seemed to shrug it off and continued to trick around. Though, in all honesty, he doubted she even understood him.

She spoke a whole different _language_. One that Zoro was sure he had heard somewhere before but had no idea on how to actually speak it. Which left him to try and scare the girl away with mean looks and rude tones. She would just laugh though, and smile at him with a strange light in her eyes, like she knew something he didn't. That only made him more determined to make her leave.

Somehow, in the middle of their second meeting, she had weaseled out his name while telling him hers. Sam, she had said, and she looked so damn happy when he called her that that the swordsman almost felt bad about how cold he was being to her.

He just couldn't get a read on the girl. One minute she would be all sunshine and smiles, and the next she falls silent and looks like the weight of the world is on her shoulders. Whenever she saw him looking, she would just give him a tired smile and wave off his curious look. And when she finally left for who knows where, the courtyard would just feel a little bit emptier.

She didn't just stop by during the dark hours of the night either. Sometimes he would see her hanging around the walls of the base. Sometimes just sitting on top of them or walking along the top until one of the marine would yell at her to get down. She would give them the finger, but otherwise comply with their wishes.

She had also made a habit of playing her small handheld instrument whenever she went near the base. Sometime playing what sounded like songs and others just playing notes at random.

She stayed completely clear of the marines though, to the point of when she saw one she would actively try to put as much distance in-between them as possible. The only exception to the rule was rule was the bastard son. She would instead actively mess with him. Anything from purposely playing loud enough to annoy him or sneaking up right behind him and playing a note, only to _stay_ behind him when he turned around.

Besides her obvious trolling of the marines on the base, which both of them found hilarious, she hung out in town playing her instrument for some of the kids or in the forest doing who-knows-what. Zoro highly suspected that she _lived_ in the forest, with the amount of leaves and dirt she would have in her hair or on her clothes at times. Not that he was worried, just wondered why she wouldn't stay in the town or in an inn or something.

* * *

Sam covered her mouth as she yawned. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, which was to be expected when you sleep on the forest flood while your muscles feel like they've been torn apart. One thing she's found out about the boosts in the past week is that though they give her a defiant leg up in speed, power, and what not, the draw backs are pretty painful.

Speed Boost and Strength Boost are just that, makes her faster and stronger, but when they're dropped, and the muscles she had used feeling like she just put them through a workout from hell, twice. Attack Boost, which just make her hits more destructive, leaves her with sensitive skin. Defense Boost, which made her skin and bones harder to break, left her limbs feeling like lead. And the more she used them when activated, the greater the effects.

She couldn't wait to use them in a fight though, while at the same time she _never_ wanted to use them in a fight for fear of how it would feel afterward. Oh the horror…

She passed by the fruit seller from her first day in town and offered her a smile. The woman cheerfully smiled back and waved her over before pointing at the fruit in front of her and waiting patiently. It hadn't taken long for the town's people to realize that she couldn't understand them and most of them came together to help her learn some of the language. The marines helped too, when neither the bastard son (whose name she couldn't remember to save her life) or his equally bastard father wasn't anywhere nearby.

(Though when she had been cornered by the housewives and children, she had been utterly terrified. They came out of _nowhere_ , like fucking ninja. One second she was quietly eating her apple, and the next she was being taken away and told the names of different things that people pointed out. And the kids continued to get the jump on her at least once a day.)

"Ringo, nashi, orenji, painappuru," she rambled off as she pointed to each fruit in turn. The sales woman beamed at her and the man in the next stall, who sold vases, nodded with a smile as well.

"Yoi! Yoi! Sate, dono yō ni ōku no?" She said and waited patiently for Sam to translate what she had said and form a response.

Slowly, Sam responded but held up two fingers anyway. "Ringo, orenji, ni shite kudasai?" her grammar was absolutely horrible, but as long as she got the message across, at this point she didn't care. The woman smiled kindly though, and grabbed two apples and two oranges. Sam paid for the fruit and went on my way. Another good thing the town's people did was find easy odd jobs for her to do when she was in town for money. If they didn't do that, she would have been out of money at this point.

The blonde walked down the street, swinging her bag of fruit that would serve as her food for the day and hummed the tune to Brink's Sake to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the sight of a red vest and a straw hat. Stopping, she looked back and couldn't stop the grin that broke out in full force on her face.

Monkey D. Luffy has arrived.

* * *

 **Translations, in order:**

 **Apple, pear, orange, pineapple.**

 **Good! Good! Now, how many?**

 **Apple, orange, two please?**

 **So, question: How did you like Zoro's p.o.v.? Should I switch p.o.v.s more often or just stick to Sam's and my other OCs (yes, there will be more) p.o.v.? I can work with either one, so just let me what you guys think and I'll see what I can do.**

 **(Also, was Zoro in character? I have absolutely no idea if I did his character justice.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**OH MY GOD! It's done! Finally! I'm so sorry for the wait, the chapter just wasn't coming to me this time.**

 **Ok, heads up to everyone, when it's someone else's p.o.v. besides Sam, when she speaks English it's going to be** _ **like this**_ **so that it's easy to see the difference. Other than that, it's like before. Another thing, in this story I have it that there are more languages besides Japanese but very few people are fluent in them. So there is English and various other languages, but it's more like high school Spanish to people in One Piece. Everyone in One Piece speaks only one language, even though they come from all over the world, so I see it that the WG, when it was created, had all the countries that joined switch their native language to Japanese so that communication between countries could be easier. People still learn English (look at Franky's '** _ **SUPER**_ **' for example) but it's not their main language. The only person that world probable understand Sam at this point right off the bat is Robin, because I can see her knowing enough English to hold a conversation. So, Japanese is the 'common' tongue, while everything else are only used by some educated people.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, I only own Sam, Aquarius, and any other OC that may/will pop up.**

* * *

"It looks so big up close!" Luffy said with a wide grin. Coby stood beside him, looking nervous as he gazed up at the Marine Base that towered over them.

"Well, go on in, Coby! This is your chance!" Luffy said as he clapped him on the back. The pink haired boy stumbled slightly but righted himself and turned to his companion nervously.

"B-but I haven't mentally prepared myself yet…" he stuttered and he fiddled with his hands nervously. "And the town's people got really scared when they heard the captain's name…" he added as an afterthought and looked at the Marine Base uneasily. Luffy shrugged and moved to climb up the wall to look for the infamous pirate hunter when someone spoke up from behind them.

"Oi."

"Hmm?" Luffy stopped, his hands already on some handholds and looked back. Standing a few feet behind Coby was a short haired blonde girl standing behind them. Her sunglasses flashed in the sun as she gestured for them to follow her and start off down the path that ran along the wall.

The two of them looked at each other and them back at the skipping teen. She was oddly cheerful, wasn't she? Luffy let go of the wall and started after her with Coby stumbling behind them.

She stopped and with the ease of practice, climbed up the wall and sat on top of it. She turned to look down at them and waved them up. Luffy climbed up the wall blinked when he saw a figure tied to a cross in the courtyard before grinning. Coby climbed up after them and would have fallen off if the girl hadn't caught him by the back of his shirt and hauled him back up.

"A b-black bandanna a-and a h-haramaki! I-it's really him! Z-Zoro!" he yelped as he clung to the wall with trembling hands. "He looks so scary!"

The girl scoffed and unknown to them, rolled her eyes, even though she could hardly understand what they were saying. Luffy snickered at his friend before looking back at the swordsman.

"So that's Zoro, huh?" Luffy said with a grin. "Looks like he could break out of those robes pretty easily…"

"Oi! Zoro!" the blonde called and Coby looked faint. She giggled at his expression before waving happily at the swordsman. Said swordsman looked up and grunted when he saw them.

"You're back again, brat? And this time you brought friends…" Zoro said and scowled at them. Luffy and the blonde seemed completely unaffected by it and grinned at him. Coby, on the other hand, looked like he was about to go visit his ancestors permanently. The blonde looked at him in concern and poked him to make sure he was still alive.

" _Hey, you still alive, sir? You haven't died yet,_ ne?" she said as she poked him in the head repeatedly. His eye twitch, so satisfied that he was still among the living, the blonde stopped her poking. She looked over at Luffy, who was looking at her in confusion.

"What?"

" _What?_ "

"What?" Luffy repeated and Coby looked between the two of them with a frown.

"What?" he said and the girl tilted her head to the side.

" _What?_ "

"What?" Luffy said again.

"What?!" Coby snapped and the girl, who was now smirking, was about to continue the endless cycle when Zoro finally had it with them.

"ENOUGH!" he yelled at them, his teeth momentarily sharp like shark teeth. The three teens on the wall instantly quieted and looked away sheepishly, though the blonde was still grinning. The swordsman sighed heavily and wished not for the first time that week that he could move his hands to massage his forehead to get rid of the coming headache. "One of them is enough as it is…" he growled softly.

The clatter of wood on stone made everyone turn and look at the ladder that had been placed against the wall. Up the ladder climbed a kid that shushed the three on the wall. When she saw the blonde, she brightened and smiled widely.

"Sam!" she said happily.

Sam grinned and gave a halfhearted wave in greeting. "Rika!" she chirped back happily.

Rika flashed her one more smile before hopping over the wall and making her way to Zoro. Luffy looked mildly interested, Coby looked ready to faint then and there, and Sam looked she didn't care one bit and had at some point brought out her ocarina to play. Her playing was barely audible as she watched Zoro reject the onigiri and try to send Rika away before the Marines noticed.

Too bad they did.

When the man in the suit-that's-too-ugly-to-be-called-a-suit started smashing the onigiri Rika had made, Sam _hissed_. Coby and Luffy shot her startled looks as she hissed angrily into her scarf. It sounded like a snake or one of the more serpent like sea kings when they were angry, and a blind man could have told you she was angry. She stopped hissing when Rika was thrown into the air and moved to catch her, but Luffy reacted faster.

He was thrown off the wall by the girl's momentum and rolled to a stop. Coby jumped off the wall after them in a panic and started to fret over them before they even came to a complete stop. Sam stayed on the wall however removed her sunglasses to give the bastard son the full force of her glare. He took one look at her glare, heard her hiss, and promptly turned around and high tailed it out of there with his Marine escort behind him. Guess he forgot that he could have ordered the Marines to shoot her.

* * *

"You're still here?" Zoro said when he noticed that Luffy had jumped over the wall and was standing in front of him. "Sam may have scared off the idiot son, but you still don't want to stay around here for his dad to catch you."

The straw hat teen just shrugged at the warning like it didn't really matter to him. "Don't care." He said blandly before brightening with a grin. "Hey, I'm looking for strong people to join my pirate crew."

Zoro scoffed. "Pirate crew? Let me guess, you want me to join?" when Luffy nodded, he snorted in mock amusement and sneered. "Hell no! Like I would lower myself to that level!"

Luffy frowned at his statement and placed his hands on his hips. "Being a pirate is my dream! What's so wrong with that?"

The swordsman grinned crookedly. "Even if you untie me, I wouldn't join your pirate crew."

"Will, I haven't decided yet if I'll actually ask you or not…" Luffy said as he placed a hand on his hat. "You got a pretty bad rep around here, you know."

"Bad rep?" Zoro snorted in amusement. "Like I care about that, I've got my own plans for the future and they don't involve becoming a pirate. All I have to do here is survive a mouth like this and then I'm a free man." His face darkened as he became more serious. "The captain's idiot son promised me."

"Ah, I see." Luffy said and laughed. "I don't think I'd last a week out here without food!"

Zoro snorted and said, "The two of us are different. I've got more will power than you. Go find a crew somewhere else."

"Well…" Luffy said as he looked over his shoulder at the wall where Sam still sat playing her instrument softly. She had left her sunglasses off and seemed to be completely oblivious to the world. "I was thinking of asking her."

"Sam?" Zoro said with a frown as he looked to the blonde who looked over at them when she heard her name. She cocked her head to the side and blinked at them curiously. "I don't think that's a very good idea."

"Why not?"

"For one," Zoro said with a sigh as Sam continued to stare at them. "I doubt she can even understand half of what we're saying, let alone you asking her to join. She doesn't understand common. She'd just cause you more problems than being useful."

"Hmm," Luffy looked Sam in the eye and she blinked again. "Well… We'll see." He said absently before turning to leave.

Zoro watched him go for a second before calling him back. "Hey, wait a minute." When Luffy stopped and looked back at him, he looked down at the ruined onigiri. "Give that to me."

* * *

Sam flipped back off the wall after Luffy had feed Zoro the ruined onigiri. She hide a small smile behind her scarf as Luffy climbed over the side of the wall. The encounter had gone mostly the way she remembered it going, though they had at one point talked about her. Sam hoped that Luffy hadn't gotten the idea to recruit her, because in all the history of the Strawhats, when Luffy asks someone to join, they almost always did.

It's not like she didn't _want_ to join, she just didn't want to mess with the plot any more than she already has. In the plot line she knows, nobody—in the crew at least—dies, and she would like to keep it that way. Who knows what could change if just one more person was added to the crew's roster. Just being in Shells Town was probably changing things. Not big things, but things none the less.

With a sigh, Sam reached into her bag with her food and pulled out an apple. Giving a careful look over, looking for bruises. Deeming it edible, she bit a large chuck out for it as she turned to walk away from Luffy and the others, absently going over what she planned on doing later.

Food, check. Made sure Zoro was still alive and kicking, check. Didn't piss off the local axe-handed freak, check. Scared asshole son shitless? Double check. All that's left is to go find someplace to bunker down to keep an eye on things around here.

"Sam!" She stops moving and turns around to face Rika. Seeing the curious looks on all of their faces, the blonde grinned and gave them a halfhearted salute before turning on her heel and continuing on her way. She didn't want to stay and risk somehow getting dragged along with Luffy and Zoro in the end, but she would be back. What kind of One Piece fan would she be if she missed seeing the main characters in action in real life?

She grinned as she took another bite out of her apple and made for the forest with a little skip in her step. What's coming next is going to be awesome!

* * *

After Sam had walked off and disappeared, Rika said she probably went back to the forest, Rika led them away for the Marine Base and started to explain why Zoro was really tired to a cross. "Zoro didn't do anything wrong! It's all Helmeppo's fault!" Rika said after she had finished her tale.

"So he's actually a nice guy, huh…" Coby said softly. He frowned, disturbed by what he had been told. Zoro hadn't done anything wrong while the captain's son, Helmeppo, was the one that had been in the wrong more times than people wanted to count. He frowned at the thought before the image of a blonde with bright blue eyes made itself known. "Who was that girl, Sam I think you called her, anyway? Why was she saying all that weird stuff before?"

"Oh, Sam?" Rika said as she looked over at Coby. "She's only been around here for a week and mom says she doesn't speak common so we have to be nice to her. But she's really nice! She plays with us kids and plays her whistle thing for us sometimes!" Rika smiled at the memory of one of the times that Sam had played for them.

"She doesn't speak common?" Coby said, slightly concerned. Common was the language of the World Government, if she didn't speak common, than where did she come from? Rika shrugged and continued.

"Mom says she talks in one of the languages, English I think she said, but nobody on the island knows enough to ask her, so we're trying to teach her common instead."

"You think she'd like to be a pirate?" Luffy said Coby looked at him sharply.

"Luffy!"

Rika considered the question, not bothered by Luffy asking it like Coby and shrugged. "I don't know. She usually avoids the Marines at the base, but if she meets them in town she seems fine. She seems to like Zoro though, and usually hangs around the courtyard when none of the Marines are there." Rika said honestly. In truth, most of the Marines didn't care that she was there, as long as she didn't spring Zoro loose. The only one that would throw a fit was the captain, who she avoided like the plague, but none of the Marines told him.

Luffy hummed as he thought over what she had said before nodding and grinning widely. He was going to say something when a shrill voice interrupted him.

"Hey, you're not bowing your heads low enough! I'll have my fighter execute you along with Zoro and that blonde bitch in three days!" The group of three turned and looked down the road at Helmeppo, who was strutting forward with a cocky smirk that shouldn't be anywhere near his face.

"I thought you gave Zoro a month," Luffy said stiffly, eyeing the captain's son. "And Sam hasn't done anything wrong."

Helmeppo made a face, like he was trying to sneer but had forgotten how, and said, "That? It was a joke! And that blonde bitch pisses me off!" He may have been about to say more, but just then a fist slammed into his face and sent him flying back into his Marine escort. Standing in front of where he had just been standing stood Luffy, fist still raised and a look of barely concealed rage in his eyes. Coby was beside him, holding him back and stopping him from during anything worse than he had already done.

"Coby." The straw hat wearing teen's voice easily carried over the sound of Helmeppo's empty death threats as he was carried away. Said boy looked up at the taller teen, clear panic in his eyes at the captain's son's _threats_. The determined scowl on his face did nothing to quell his worries.

"I've decided. We're going to get Zoro out, whether he joins or not," he said in a surprisingly calm voice. "And I'm going to get Sam to join me too."

 _Why do I feel like I'm not going to like what happens next_ , Coby thought to himself as he watched his friend make his way back to the Marine Base.

* * *

 _Why do I have the sudden feeling that I fucked up somehow?_ Sam thought to herself as she lounged in a tree branch on the outside of the wall that surrounded the Marine base. It was at the perfect height that she could see most of the courtyard, which included Zoro, but she was still hidden enough by the leaves and shadows that no one in the courtyard could see her. She looked up and smirked when she saw the asshole son—she honestly couldn't remember his name to save her life—being dragged back onto base by a group of Marines.

She shook her head in amusement and made herself comfortable on her tree branch and waited for the show to begin. She didn't have to wait long, because not even five minutes later Luffy came over the wall again and marched right up to Zoro. She couldn't catch what they were saying from where she was, not like she would have understood them anyway, but she remembered enough of the plot to have a basic idea of what they were saying.

She tilted her head curiously when she saw Luffy ask Zoro something and then look around for something. Zoro retorted back with something, angry about whatever it was that Luffy had asked, and Luffy just laughed it off and put a hand on his hat, grinning widely. Sometimes not knowing what someone was saying really irritated her.

She smiled knowingly when Luffy ran off towards the main building of the base with Zoro shouting after him. A few seconds later she was muffling her laughter as the top half of Captain Morgan's statue hit the ground with a loud crash. She was _way_ too gleeful at the sight of destruction. Maybe she should see a professional…?

She calmed herself down from her giggling fit just as Coby climbed over the wall and quickly made his way to Zoro. Sam watched him talk to Zoro and then start on the ropes as she weighed whether it was worth it going over there and helping. She didn't want to get involved any more than she already was, but she didn't want to see Coby get shot either…

Next thing she knew, she was already half way across the courtyard. She reached the swordsman and future Marine and quickly took over the side closest to the main building with a grin. The two of them seemed to be surprised she was there, but she just gave them a cheeky grin and started on the ropes. They weren't that well tied and made out of cheap rope. The only reason they had worked on Zoro in the first place was because he had _let_ them tie him to the cross.

Just as Sam had gotten one of the knots undone, a gun shot rang through the air and a shearing pain shot through her left shoulder. The force of the hit made her stagger back and trip over her own feet. She landed on her back and stared up at the blue sky as she tried to process what had just happened, even as her shoulder felt like fire.

She gritted her teeth together and hissed in pain as she sat up and clutched her shoulder. She waved away Coby's concern, even though it was sweet of him to worry about her, and painfully got to her feet. She went back to working on the knots like nothing had happened, the only difference now was she was determined to give _someone_ a good punch for her shoulder before the day was out.

Coby looked at the blonde, worrying that she would fall over and faint from blood loss or something. When he saw the determined look in her jewel like eyes though, he decide to leave her be and follow her example and start on the knots again. Even if he told her to stop, she wouldn't listen, language barrier or not.

Zoro watched the two of them in silence, and silently praised the blonde for her spirit. There weren't many people that would go help people they don't know on a whim, and fewer still that would stick around when things started getting dangerous. He snorted in amusement and flexed his arms, letting the two prison breakers find some slack in the ropes.

Sam smiled when she saw Zoro flexing his arms, trying to find some slack that they could use, and cheerfully—or as cheerfully as she could get with a bleeding shoulder—started pulling apart the second knot. She had just undone the last part of the knot and let the rope fall to the ground, freeing Zoro's one arm, when the Marines finally decided to show up.

"Teishi! Senchō Morugan no junjo ni yotte, anata no subete o ichido ni jikkō sa seru! **(1)** "

Sam turned and stood in front of Zoro and Coby, blocking them from view and she placed her hands on her hips—her shoulder _really_ hurt now—and scowled at the Marines with a quirked eyebrow. She tried to mask her pain, but she only succeeded in making herself look more pissed off at everything.

"Did you just say you would execute us?" she said while she inwardly praised the creation of the manga and anime for giving her foresight in this event. "Because I think you just said you would execute us, and didn't you're parents ever tell you it's not nice to point guns at people?" No one could understand her, but that wasn't the point here. She just wanted to buy enough time for Luffy to find the swords and come save their asses, because she sure wasn't taking on all these Marines by herself.

And just as she predicted, after Morgan gave his little speech that she couldn't understand and the other two didn't care about, as soon as the Marines pulled the triggers of their rifles, Luffy flew out of the wood work and gave everyone a mind fuck.

* * *

"THAT WON'T WORK!" Luffy yelled as he repelled the bullets that had been fired back at the Marines. Everyone in the courtyard was in various states of shock. Well, everyone besides Sam, who was bent over holding her stomach as she cackled loudly.

"What kind of human are you?" Zoro asked in shock. Sam was on her knees now, wheezing from all her laughing with tears in her eyes, either from mirth or the pain from her shoulder, Luffy couldn't tell.

"Me? I'm the man that will be Pirate King!" He answered Zoro confidently with a wide grin. Sam had finally gotten control of herself and was waving off Coby's concern as Luffy took the three swords off of his back and held them out for Zoro to see. "I found three, so which one is—" Zoro quickly cut him off as he looked over the sword.

"All of them, I use three swords."

Luffy smiled and nodded, before looking over at the Marines that were still dumbstruck that he was still standing. "Fight against the Marines with us will make you an outlaw," he turned back to Zoro with a challenging smirk. "Or would you rather die today?"

Zoro stayed silent for a moment before returning Luffy's smirk with one of his own. "Are you the son of the devil…" he muttered softly before smirking wider and a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes. "Forget it. Instead of dying here, I'll take up your offer and become a pirate!"

"Yahoo! We got a swordsman!" Luffy cheered. Beside him, Sam got to her feet and joined in the cheering.

"Hell yeah!" She shouted, and the gathered pirates and Marines looked at her strangely. She looked back at them innocently and everyone sweatdropped. _Does she even know why she's cheering?_ Everyone but Luffy thought as he laughed alongside her, like they were sharing an inside joke.

"How is he still alive?"

"He should be dead!"

The quartet—I haven't forgotten Coby yet—looked back at the Marines that were still in the process of wrapping their heads around the fact that Luffy was still among us living.

"He must have eaten a Devil Fruit of some kind…" Morgan growled as he glared daggers at the ones that _dared_ go up against the great him.

"Devil Fruit?!" one of the surrounding Marines yelled in panic. Sam scoffed as she reached over and stared helping Coby and Zoro with the last knot with one arm, her left arm hanging limply as blood slowing dripped down through her fingers. _That_ seemed to get their attention pretty quickly.

"Those two are untying Zoro! Stop!" Sam looked up from her work blow a raspberry at the Marines. Coby looked at her like she had grown another head while Zoro looked amused and Luffy laughed. She grinned cheekily at them before helping pull the last of the rope free, thus freeing Zoro, just as the Marines charged with swords drawn.

The swordsman effortlessly took his swords from Luffy and drew them in one smooth movement. Moments later, he had effectively stopped seven on the Marines' swords with his three without a glance. Both Luffy and Sam looked awe struck while Coby looked like he would faint from the level pure awesomeness that he had just witnessed.

"You better not move," Zoro said dangerously around the white katana in his mouth. "If you do, I'll kill you!" Sam snorted into her scarf at the faces on the Marines that Zoro had just stopped. If only she had a camera…

"I already said I'd become a pirate and join your crew," Zoro said evenly as he looked up at Luffy, not at all bothered be the swords over his head. "Because no matter what, after this little stunt I'll be an outlaw too. But that doesn't matter, I have my own goals! I _will_ become the world's greatest swordsman! It doesn't matter if people call me a devil or a saint in the end, my name will be known worldwide and if you get in my way," his eyes hardened, "I'll kill you!"

"Good!" Luffy said, a grin still on his lips. "If you couldn't manage something like that, I would feel embarrassed! The crew that sails with the Pirate King can only be the best!" he said confidently before his grin turned a little more dangerous.

"Zoro! Duck!" he yelled after Morgan had ordered his men to attack again. "Gomu-Gomu no… Whip!" he yelled just as Zoro got his head out of the way in time as Luffy stretched his leg out and kicked all the Marines away.

"What are you?" Zoro asked with a mix of shock and awe in his voice as he straightened. Behind Luffy Sam face faulted before face palming and released a groan. Coby looked at her worriedly but she just waved him off as Luffy explained.

"I'm a rubber man." Luffy said with a grin, and to prove his point, he grabbed the side of his mouth and stretched it far beyond the limits of normal human's. He released it and his cheek went back into place with an audible _snap_.

Luffy laughed that the faces on the Marines as they panicked all over again. Zoro shook his head, not quite believing it but had no reason to deny that his new captain was a strange one. Coby had seen it all before but was still impressed by the blatant ignoring of the laws of physics at work.

That was until Morgan ordered all his men to kill themselves.

Just as the first marine raised his rifle to his temple, a firm and clear voice sounded from behind Luffy and co.

" _ **Speed Boost**_."

A blue blur speed forward from behind them and ran towards the Marines. The people in the courtyard could barely keep track of the blue blur as it ran from one marine to the next, yanking the rifles out of their hands and throwing them away. When every marine had been liberated of their weapons, the blue blur speed back behind just as the last afterimage disappeared.

Everyone turned and gapped at where the blue blur had stopped, which turned out to be Sam with her arms crossed and a frown of disapproval on her lips. A faint blue glow surrounded her entire body and the Marines started panicking again while Luffy, Zoro, and Coby still gapped at her.

"Another Devil Fruit user?!"

"What the fuck was that?!" the Marines cried even Luffy laughed. Everyone went silent though when she raised one of her arms and pointed at Morgan. She unfolded her other arm and gave him two middle fingers.

The Marines' jaws dropped and Luffy cackled loudly as Zoro chuckled in amusement. Coby had passed out, and Sam had turned her attention to him as she nudged him with her foot, ignoring everyone around her.

" _Hey, you ok? You've been fainting a lot today,_ " she said as she continued to nudge him in his side until he twitched and sat up. Luffy snickered even as he rushed forward and aimed a punch at Morgan's head, which he blocked with his axe-hand.

"People with no status like you have no right to go against me!" Morgan shouted as he throw off his coat and faced off against Luffy. "I am the great Captain Morgan!"

"I'm Luffy." Luffy said and bowed in greeting. "Nice to meet you."

* * *

"Did he just introduce himself? Please tell me him didn't just do that." Sam said as she watched Luffy jump around dodging Morgan's axe swipes while he throw punches of his own. Coby offered a glance but turned back to watch the battle with a worried expression. Sam shrugged before grimacing and clutched her shoulder again. The bleeding hadn't stopped yet, though it had slowed down, but it still hurt.

She pulled her hand away and made a face at the blood that dripped from it before placing it over the wound again. She heard the click of a gun being armed and looked up, only to deadpan. The asshole son had apparently decided that the person with the bullet wound would make the better hostage.

 _Really people? Did they already forget about the_ _ **Speed Boost**_ _that_ hasn't _been dropped yet?_

* * *

"Wait!" Helmeppo shouted, even as his knees shook. Coby stumbled away and looked from the gun to Sam to Helmeppo in a panic. Zoro looked over and quirked an eyebrow. Luffy continued to jump around like a monkey, dodging attacks that would have cut him in half other wise and completely ignore what was going on around him.

"Hey! I said wait!" he tried again and got the same results.

"Idiot," Sam said coolly as she shook her head.

"S-shut up!" she shook her head and looked back over at Luffy as he landed another punch.

"Oi! Luffy!" She called, and Luffy stopped and looked over his shoulder at her with a raised an eyebrow. She gave him a grin and then a thumbs up, letting him know that she was perfectly fine.

"Hey, idiot son! Sam's not afraid of you!" Luffy said as he turned to face Helmeppo and brought his fist back as a shadow passed over him. "Gomu-Gomu no…" all at once, everyone started moving. Morgan moving to take off Luffy's head while Zoro went to intercept him. Luffy brought his fist forward with a loud cry of "Pistol!" before his fist collided with Helmeppo's face. Sam spun around on her heel and slammed her fist into the other side of Helmeppo's face in the same instant as Luffy.

Both Helmeppo and his father hit the ground at the same time. Luffy's arm snapped back into place and he turned to look at Sam. She flashed him a grin which he happily returned before looking over his shoulder at Zoro. "Nice one, Zoro."

"Don't mention it, Captain." Zoro replied with a smirk as he sheathed his swords. He then turned to the remaining Marines that had just watched their captain get defeated. "If you'll still going to arrest us, come and get us."

The Marines looked at Zoro, then at the fallen form of Morgan, before turning to each other. The next moment, they were jumping up in the air, throwing their hats up as well, cheering for the defeat of their captain.

"Huh, they seem happy that their captain got defeated." Luffy said as he watched the Marines throw an improvised party. Coby looked at all the celebrating Marines with something close to relief.

"So nobody liked Morgan to begin with, huh…"

A blue blur rushed passed them just as Zoro started to collapse. Sam appeared in front of him and caught him before he hit the ground. "Zoro!" Luffy called in concern as Sam grunted as she lowered him to a sitting position on the ground. The swordsman glared up at her.

"I didn't need your help," he retorted and she just gave him a lopsided grin. Sam then closed her eyes and took a breath as if to steady herself. When she exhaled, she said one word in a firm and clear voice.

" _ **Drop**_."

Everyone watched with wide eyes as a set of softly glowing rings formed at her feet and rose until they disappeared over her. As soon as they disappeared, Sam's knees buckled underneath her and she sank to the ground with a groan.

"Sam?!"

"Are you all right?"

Sam looked up at the crowd that had surrounded her and Zoro when she had collapsed and grinned tiredly.

"Ouch," she said with a slight chuckle even as she grimaced when she moved her legs. The Marines around them let out a sigh of relief and one of them ordered another to find the doctor. Sam glanced up at Luffy and flashed him a tired smile. She was just glad that that was over… and that she would be getting pain medicine soon.

* * *

Sam stared down at her reflection in the water as she sat at the edge of the docks. Her shoulder had been stitched up and bandaged and the pain had lessened from a white hot fire to a dull throb. Her legs were a different story though. They felt like they were going to fall off when she first dropped the boost but now they just ached painfully. Painful, but bearable.

She had left Luffy and his little group as soon as her shoulder had been taken care of and she had taken some pain medicine. She still stood be her decision to not get involved any more than she already had, so she high tailed it down to the docks as soon as she could. But now that she had helped them get Zoro out of prison—though he wasn't really _in_ prison in the first place—it probably wasn't a good idea to stick around.

So that meant she had to find a boat that would get her off the island and from there one that could get her to the Grand Line. Aquarius had said that his Champion's main base was in the Grand Line and that she should go there, which she would have to leave at some point anyway. Hopefully she could find a merchant ship that would be willing to take her. As much as she liked some of the Marines, she wasn't going to risk joining them. Too many were assholes.

She hummed as she continued to study she reflection. A shadow passed over her and she blinked when she saw a head of green hair in the water over her own head. _They're done eating already?_

The next thing she knew, she was being lifted from her seat and thrown into one of the small boats that was tied to the docks. She landed hard and hissed when pain shot through her shoulder. She looked up and could only watch with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open as Luffy and Zoro jump into the boat and set sail. She watched numbly at first as Coby come and sent them off followed shortly by the rest of the Marines.

She only snapped out of her trance when the island finally disappear form the horizon. She looked over at the two others in the boat and a moment of silence passed between.

"I really did fuck up, didn't I?" she asked the air and held her head in her hands deciding to ignore the other two that when giving her weird looks. _So much for_ that _plan._

* * *

A few hours later, Sam was wrestling with Luffy while Zoro was watching from the sideline amused.

"For the last time, Luffy, there is something called personal space!" Sam said as she tried to push him away from her, but him being made of rubber made it very difficult. "I don't know what you're saying— _and hands off the bag!_ " she tore her bag out of his hands and held it out of his reach.

Luffy pouted and repeated what he had been saying for the past hour. Sam scowled at him, not at all effected by his pout (ok, maybe a little, but it didn't help them any) and hissed at him while she held her bag close to her chest. She opened her mouth to tell him to back off when something very _solid_ and _hard_ hit her in the back of her head.

Something clattered to the deck of the boat as Sam dropped her bag and cradled her head in her lap. Cursing in a way that would have left possible both boys blushing, Sam looked with tears in her eyes to glare at the offending object that had hit her. She blinked when she saw a glass bottle—the same one that she had thrown in the ocean a week ago to be exact—with piece of paper rolling back and forth innocently on the deck.

As one, the newly formed Straw Hat Pirates looked from the innocent bottle to behind Sam and their jaws dropped. There, out in the middle of the ocean, was a hand made completely out of water waving cheerfully at them before dissolving. They stared at the spot for a second longer before returning their attention to the bottle.

Minutes passed as they continued to stare at the bottle as it rolled across the deck as the boat moved with the wave. Sam reached forward and picked up the bottle as Luffy Zoro watched silently. She held it like it would suddenly attack her and she uncorked it and fished out the message. She took one look at the neat computer print and face faulted.

"You mean there's return messages!?"

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **(1)** Teishi! Senchō Morugan no junjo ni yotte, anata no subete o ichido ni jikkō sa seru! = Stop! By order of Captain Morgan, all of you are to be executed at once!

 **Yes, message-in-a-bottle is a thing and Sam can send them to almost anyone in the One Piece World, they just have to be near a body of water that is the sea or connected to it. So, because it's a thing, I'm going to let you guys pick who she sends some messages to and I'll write a little thing at the bottom of the chapter where she sends it and the person receives it if you like.**

 **So yeah, good? Bad? Mah? Please drop me a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter!**

 **Edit: Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot to put in the lines... Well, now this chapter has lines, so hopefully it makes more sense.**


	4. Matters of Pirates and Clowns

**People of the internet! I'M ALIVE!**

 **But seriously, this took way longer than it should have but at least it's pretty long, so… forgive me?**

 **Well anyway, hope you guys enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaim: Must I do this? Everyone here should know by now that I own nothing but Sam and any other OCs the may or may not pop up.**

* * *

A soft melody floated over the sea as Sam watched with amusement as none other than Monkey D. Luffy, future infamous pirate and king of pirates, fought a losing battle to stay awake. His first-mate had already lost the battle and was snoring peacefully in his little corner of the boat. Or at least she thought he was. Meh.

She raised an eyebrow in amusement as the raven-haired boy finally nodded off into the comforting embrace of sleep. She played for another minute before lowering her instrument from her lips and placed it safely back into her bag.

It had taken three hour of pushing and shoving, death threats that no one but she understood, and one attempt of murder but she had finally— _finally_ —figured out what Luffy had been asking, with no small bit of help from Zoro. After he had stopped her from throwing his captain overboard in a fit of rage, he had mimed in between his laughter playing an ocarina.

So, after throwing one last glare at the _still_ smiling idiot— _did he get dropped on his head as a baby!?... Don't answer that—_ she had reached into her bag and pulled out the requested instrument. She raised an expectant eyebrow at the pirates and pointed at the instrument. When she got an enthusiastic nod from one and a lesser so one from the other, she sat back and started playing.

It honestly shouldn't have taken her so long to figure out what Luffy had wanted. He didn't know what was in the bag, he had already stolen the fruit and she had returned the favor by almost throwing him overboard, so there was no reason for him to want the bag. And hadn't Luffy always wanted a musician?

Sam froze and looked at the sleeping pirate captain in horror. _Don't tell me he wants me to be his musician_?!

She closed her eyes while she pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a wary sigh. After shooting the sleeping pirates a withering glare, she leaned back and stared up at the sky, flinching slight as her shoulder protested at the movement.

She reach over and gingerly touched the bandages. She didn't know if her devil fruit had some kind of healing boost or something, which would be damn useful as well as such a troll to everyone else, but she had never really had the need to test it out.

She tilted her head from side to side, considering the idea. With a shrug, she said firmly, " **Healing Boost**."

She waited for a moment, looking for the tale tell glowing rings that come with her other boosts. When she saw nothing, she shrugged again. "Oh well, not that big of a deal," she said. Yes, a healing boost would be nice, but it wasn't needed. Not _yet_ at least.

She cast a lazy gaze over the surrounding water, watching the waves lazily roll past. After a minute, she remembered something Aquarius had told her, something that would work more in her favor than even a possible healing ability.

She could still _swim_.

Now Sam has never tested it, she never had a reason to back on the island. She _had_ been planning on testing it before she would have left the island but clearly _that_ won't happen now. She shot a glare at the sleeping pirates again before scoffing and rolling her eyes as they snored the day away.

She looked back out to the sea and considered her options. She could either wait until one of her two companions woke up or they reached land to test it. _Or_ , she thought, she could test it right now and be damned the consequences.

She thought for another moment before shrugging. "Why the hell not?" With that said, Sam set her bag aside and took off her scarf and sash because they would be a pain when wet as well as her sandals so she wouldn't lose them. She shivered when they wind brushed up against her neck, chilling it. After wearing the scarf for so long, she hadn't realized how much it kept her neck warm.

She cast one last look at the sleeping pirate, trying to see if they were truly asleep and not just faking it. Deciding they were well and truly sleeping, she turned to the side of the boat and took a deep breath to steel her nerves. Releasing her breath, she looked out at the sea before taking another deep breath as she jumped over the side of the boat and into the water.

The reaction was almost instant.

As soon as the water closed over top of her head, Sam felts something reach out from the depths and wrap around her, chilling her to her core. She gasped, forgetting that she was underwater for a moment, as she jerked back in a panic.

It felt like the very sea had reached out and grabbed hold of her. She thrashed around, trying to dislodge the feeling of something _chaining her down_ but found that no matter how much she moved, the feeling stayed. It just held on stubbornly, refusing to let go. It didn't really stop her from moving though, which meant she could still swim (Yay!) but didn't stop the fact that it was stopping _something_. Her devil fruit most likely, her mind chimed dimly.

She took a breath to calm herself and almost did as she felt the cool water pass through her and relieved the tension that had set in in her panic. Then she remember where she was and almost choked.

Because she was underwater.

And she was _breathing_.

She coughed as she tried to get the water out of her lungs only to breathe in more. It wasn't really hurting her, more like _it_ didn't know what to do with her than anything else. She finally stopped coughing when she realized she wasn't even using her mouth or nose to breath, but her _gills_. Truth be told, she had almost forgotten about them.

She stopped her coughing as she focused instead on the feeling of breathing through her gills. It was weird, but felt so natural that the only thing she could do was give a small grin at the water around her as she waded in place.

That is until there was a splash next to her and she turned to see the panicked face of the first-mate of the Straw Hats. _Ah_ , she thought idly, _maybe I_ should _have woken them up._

* * *

This crew would be the death of him.

One was a graduated idiot and the other apparently had a death wish, because what kind of devil fruit user _jumps into the sea willingly_?! The swordsman sent a seething glare at the blonde who was laying sprawled out next to her stuff on the deck. She blinked up at the sky with a dazed look in her eyes for a moment before turning to look over at him.

"Hey, you guys ok?" Luffy asked, looking between his two soaked crewmates. Zoro grumble a reply, shooting the blonde one more glare. Sam turned her dazed stare from the swordsman to Luffy. She blinked once before a grin that threaten to split her face in two suddenly spread across her face.

" _I can still swim! Hell yeah, baby!_ " she shouted at the top of her lungs, going from sprawled on the deck to air born in a second. She laughed, almost on the verge of an evil cackle, as she threw her head back to the sky. The two pirates looked at her strangely and Zoro inched anyway from her.

After a good minute of straight laughing her ass off, her laughter dwindled down to soft snickering. Her grin stretched across her face, showing off her elongated, _sharp_ canines as she wrung out her shirt. Her eyes shone with mirth and glee as she tried to get as much water out of the article of clothing without taking it off.

Zoro snorted at her behavior. How could she be so happy after almost drowning? If fact, it hadn't looked like she was drowning he had pulled her out, more like she was calmly floating in place, but that was impossible. No one with a devil fruit would be calm in water, weak and mostly limp yea, but not _calm._

The pirate hunter narrowed his eyes and glanced over at the blonde, who was retying her sash around her waist. Something wasn't right here.

"Hey!"

Both the pirate hunter and the blonde jumped at the sudden exclaim from the last occupant of the boat. Luffy had moved from his side of the boat to directly in front of Sam while he looked at something on her neck. The blonde didn't seem to like her space being invaded, if her expression was anything to go by.

"Look, Zoro!" He said excitedly with a large grin as he pointed at her neck. "She has _gills!_ " He breathed, his eyes sparkling with his excitement. That got Zoro's attention, and he moved closer to get a better look. Sure enough, on both sides of Sam's neck were thin lines that lifted up when she breathed to reveal pink flesh underneath, or in other words—gills.

"So that's why she was so calm…" Zoro mumbled. Well, if she could breathe underwater, it didn't really matter that she couldn't swim. At least she wouldn't die immediately if she fell into the water, but someone would still have to fish her out.

The two of them moved closer to get a better look and Sam finally snapped. Wanting her personal space back, she kicked out, nailing them each in the chest, and knocked them back to the other side of the boat.

Zoro landed with a grunt while Luffy bounced right back up. Luffy laughed at Sam's stormy expression while Zoro leveled her with a glare. She glared right back as she grabbed her scarf and wrapped it around her neck again. She looked away from them to grab her bag to return it to its rightful place on her back only to turn around and get a face full of rubber pirate.

"Gah!"

"That's so cool! You have gills!"

" _$ # &*!_"

The pirate hunter's lips twitched up into an amused smirk as he watched Sam try in vain to push their captain away. After a minute of struggling, she seemed to give up and let Luffy pull down her scarf to get a closer look even as she reached into her bag and took out her sunglasses.

The blonde crossed her arms and leaned back against the railing, ignoring the rubber captain and met Zoro's eyes. Her expression was clear as she dawned her sunglasses, 'I don't care anymore'. Zoro's smirk widened and she glared before swatting away Luffy's hand from touching her neck.

This crew may be the death of him, but at least it's not without its forms of entertainment.

* * *

"So huuuuungry…"

"Fooooood…"

"Water…"

The crew of three were in various states of awareness, each sprawled out in their section of the boat. Two stomachs growled loudly and the two males of the boat groaned. Sam, the only one not currently dying of hunger, slowly pulled herself up so she could look over the railing of the boat and glared at the sea.

"We should have stocked up while we had the chance back at Shells Town…" Zoro said with a groan. Luffy groaned in agreement and Sam made a face while hissing at the sea. The two males gave her a look while she glared at the sea, seemingly determined to set it on fire with her eyes alone.

"Ok… I'll take that as she agrees with me." Zoro said. Luffy nodded in agreement before looking back up at the sky. A grin spread across his face and he pointed up.

"Hey, look! A bird!"

"Hmm? Ah, so it is."

Silence passed between them with only the sound of Sam grumbling inaudible at the ocean and the waves splashing against the boat. Luffy broke the silence a few moments later as his grin grew wider and he sprang to his feet.

"Let's eat it!" he declared as looked up at the bird with a hand on his hat. Sam stopped her grumbling to look at them curiously while Zoro raised an eyebrow at his captain.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" He asked as Sam tilted her head to the side in curiosity.

Luffy gave them his famous D. grin before stretching out his arm and grapping onto the top of the mast. Both Sam's and Zoro's eyes widen, though Sam's was in panic while Zoro's was in surprise. They both watched as their captain launched himself into the air towards the bird. They sat in stunned silence as he went higher and higher until he finally reached the bird.

There was a pause as the rubber boy seemed to hang in air for a moment. Zoro raised a silent eyebrow and Sam paled in horror. Zoro learned not a second later why.

"AAAARRGG! HELP!"

"IDIOT!"

The two remaining crewmates roared up at their captain, their teeth momentarily resembling shark teeth. The two of them scrambled around the boat, grabbing the oars before they were off in hot pursuit of their captain.

A minute into the cash, Sam shouted a quick " _ **Strength Boost!**_ " and a set of light yellow rings passed over her and left behind a soft yellow glow around her arms and shoulders. Zoro spared her a glance before turning back to keep an eye on the bird. Sam grinned as she was able to keep pace with her monster crewmate.

"Hey, you there!"

"Stop!"

"Stop the boat!"

"Huh?" The pirate hunter and rookie champion looked at the water in front of them and blinked at the drowning clowns/pirates. "What are they doing there?!" Zoro cursed softly before raising his voice so the clown/pirates could hear him. "Sorry! But we can't stop! You'll have to climb on by yourselves!"

"WHAT!?"

The trio screeched as the boat almost ran them over, but still managed to grab on and pull themselves onboard. Sam grinned at them, sharp and almost daring as she repressed snickers while Zoro smirked as he kept an eye on the form of their airborne captain.

"Huh, you guys actually have some climbing skills."

"Were you trying to run us over?!" one of them snarled as he glared at the two. Sam's grin seemed to sharpen even farther and the sun glinted off her sunglasses.

"Yes!" she chirped.

"DON'T SOUND SO HAPPY, DAMNIT!"

The supposed leader of the clown trio sneered and reached into his sash, bring out a long knife. Sam's grin froze on her face as she saw the knife but didn't halt in her rowing. "Doesn't matter… now, stop the boat! This is captain Buggy's territory!"

That got Zoro's undivided attention almost faster than saying, 'Hawkeye's that-a-way'.

* * *

One quick beating later and some threats from Zoro saw the clown trio rowing the temporary boat of the Strawhats towards were their captain had disappeared over the horizon. Sam had taken their weapons and ' _dropped_ ' her boost after retreating behind Zoro, scaring the already terrified clowns farther.

"Sorry."

"We are so sorry."

"We didn't know you were that 'Pirate Hunter Zoro'."

Zoro snorted. How many green-haired three-sword style swordsmen were there on the sea for them to mix him up with someone else? Sam seemed to understand enough to share his opinion and snickered as she messaged her shoulders.

"You made us lose sight of our friend," Zoro said, leveling the trio with a glare. "So if you three don't put some back into it and help us find him, you'll get it." His voice dropped at the end, sending shivers down the clowns' spins. They nodded vigorously and the two rowing redoubled their efforts.

"So…" Zoro started after a few minutes of silence. He gave the clown trio of questioning look. "Why were you guys in the middle of the sea anyway?"

"Oh! Good question!" Clown number one said.

"So glad you asked!" Clown two added.

"It's all because of that girl!" Clown numero tres growled.

The three of them then launched into their story, starting with how they had just stolen from a passing cargo ship and where on their way back to their base when they came across of lone girl in a small boat. Them being the 'kind and caring' people they were, they offered their help to the girl only to have their ship and their treasure stolen from them. The next thing they known, the girl predicted a storm that sunk the boat they were on while she made a clear get away.

"Someone that can predict the weather…" the pirate hunter said, before smirking. "Sounds interesting. Wonder if she would join us."

One of clowns growled. "Not if we get to her first." The other two shared a nervous look with each other and one of them chuckled shakily. "Yeah, we have to get our treasure back or Captain Buggy will have our heads…"

"Buggy?" Sam said, surprisingly without that much of an accent, as she poked her head up over Zoro's shoulder. Zoro casted her a look out of the corner of his eye, not thinking she would recognize the name of a pirate, and raised an eyebrow at her. She ignored him in favor of staring down the trio of clowns.

For their part, the clowns didn't seem that off put by the intense stare she was giving them and nodded. "Mmm-hmm. He's our captain, Buggy the Clown. He's a deadly and dangerous man who's eaten one of those Devil Fruit."

Zoro raised another eyebrow at that. Another Devil Fruit user? He's already met two such people—his crewmates no less—and now there was another one? Aren't those things supposed to by rare or something? "A Devil Fruit user, huh…" he looked over at the resident blonde, who had rested her chin on his shoulder as she gave the three clowns a devious smile.

The pirate hunter had no doubt that she had understood some of what had been said, if not all of it, even with the language barrier. He would have smirked in amusement as the uncomfortable looks the clowns had but choose instead to glare at the blonde currently using his shoulder as a head rest.

She glanced over, and upon seeing his glare, smiled wider, flashing teeth and leaned back with a chuckle.

"Brat," Zoro growled, though it had no heat behind it. Sam snickered, her eyes shining with mirth. The three clowns had slowed their rowing to gawk at the two—or just the balls that the blonde chick had to use Zoro as a head rest. Zoro quickly noticed the lack of effort, and with a quick glare and threat, had them rowing with renewed vigor.

This time he did smirk in amusement as Sam snickered behind him.

* * *

"This place is a ghost town."

" **(1)** Nani?" one of the clowns said. Sam ignored them in favor of looking around the deserted harbor with a disapproving frown.

Zoro snapped at him as he got out of the boat. Sam looked over her shoulder at the four pirates and cocked her head to the side. Even if she didn't understand anything, she could at least listen for the words that she _did_ know and try and inference what was being said.

One of the clown looking sheepish as he explained something in rapid fire Japanese while the others murmured behind him nervously. Zoro hummed in acknowledgement as he surveyed the town, before turning to the trio with a hard look. Sam smirked into her scarf in amusement at the nervous looks the clowns where suddenly sporting.

Zoro said something to the three clowns and Sam snickered softly into her scarf at the looks of horror that flashed across their faces. Zoro glanced her way—was that amusement she saw—before heading off into town… in apparently the wrong direction.

" **(2)** Sore wa, kono hōhōdesu!"

" **(3)** Son'na koto shitteru!"

The green haired glared at her as her snickering grew louder. She gave him a lopsided grin which he glowered at before turning back to follow the nervous trio of clowns. Her grin slowly fell off her face as she followed behind the group and looked around the town. Her expression remained blank as she looked into the dark windows of abandon houses.

 _So… this is what happens when pirates attack,_ Sam thought before grimacing. _Wait, that sounds like a bad movie title. Never mind._

It was disturbing, seeing a town so _empty_ when she could look into any one of the houses lining the street, the food—though spoiled—was still on the tables. Not a thing looked out of place, like the families had just decided one afternoon to go and leave without a trace.

The blonde champion frowned as she looked at one house that was in particularly good condition. If the town had been taken over by pirates, why were so many houses left untouched? If Buggy had sent out some of his crew to steal from ships—even if it's only three—than he had to have set up a long term base here. And if he had a long term base, then why didn't the town reflect that? Shouldn't houses be wrecked from the pirates raiding? Sam seriously doubted that the Buggy pirates were courteous enough to leave everything nice and neat after they robbed the town's people of all their valuables.

The group walked down the street in relative silence, only being broken when one of the terribly dressed trio called Zoro back on track and his responding curses. Sam grinned as she recognize some of the words being thrown around. Her Japanese wasn't anywhere good enough to use normally, but at least she was making progress.

They cut through an alley and came out right across from a pet food story. A very familiar pet food story.

Sam stopped and stared at the motionless dog the stood guard in front of the story. The other four didn't pay the dog any mind, either not seeing him or not caring. The dog turned it head suddenly at look right at her. The two of them shared a stare down for a few tense moments, before Shushu seemingly nodded and looked away.

Sam grinned brightly, feeling as if she had passed some hidden test, and jogged to catch up with the group. Just as she got level with them and Zoro looked other his shoulder at her, the sky went dark as an almost impossibly bright flash and deafening _boom_ sounded. The company jump a foot in the air and turned to look wide-eyed as smoke rose from a few streets over.

One of the clowns shouted in surprise, a little louder than needed, as the other two tried to get their hearing back.

Sam and Zoro looked at each other and nodded. "Luffy." They said as one and tore off down the street towards where the blast had come from. Different languages or not, one thing is for curtain, Luffy is always where it is loudest.

* * *

They reached the bar fairly quickly, with Sam getting lost only once—no, his sense of direction was just _fine_. From the sounds of it, the pirates were all gathered on the roof, meaning it was a good chance Luffy was their too. If not, he could always ask the other pirates 'nicely'.

Zoro quickly glanced over the bar. It would take too long to use the stairs, if the sound of angry pirates where anything to go off of, so they would have to take another route.

Without another thought, Zoro grabbed Sam and held her under his arm, earning a surprised squawk from the blonde, as he scaled the side of the building. As soon as they reached the roof, he let go of Sam as he looked over the scene. Seeing the pirates rushing the red-haired girl—was she putting out the fuse with her hands?—he grabbed Wado and one of his other swords and clothes lined the incoming clowns. Sam was right there next to him, but had opted to using her fist to knock out the clown.

Zoro looked at the pirates with an unimpressed expression. "Does it really take all of you to take on one little girl?" he asked the clowns as they fell to the floor. Sam shook out her hand and made a face at her downed clown before walking over to the other girl.

"Zoro! Sam!" Luffy cried, grinning like he hadn't been about to be blow to kingdom come. Zoro ignored him and gave the other girl a once other, looking for injuries.

"You hurt?"

"No, I'm fine…" she said warily, surprised by the question and still trying to process what had just happened. Sam took her hands and turned them over. She tched at the burns, but just shook her head before letting them go and standing.

"Man, am I glad you guys found me! Think you can get me out of here?" Luffy said, still way too happy for what the situation called for. Zoro turned his unimpressed look to his bound captain and shouldered one of his swords.

"First you get carried off by a bird and now you're trapped in some cage," he said. "Idiot." The still standing clowns moved around and mumbled to each other nervously. They, unlike their sad trio from before, knew who Zoro was and his reputation.

"So, Roronoa, you've finally came for my head, eh?" Buggy—it couldn't be anyone else—said as he tried to intimidating.

Zoro completely brushed him off. "I'm no longer in the pirate hunting business." He said as he walking right past him. "I have no interest in hunting you."

"Well, I'm interested in you," Buggy said as he pulled out knives from within his cloak and began twirling one between his fingers. "Killing you would surely increase my infamy!"

Zoro looked over his shoulder and leveled Buggy with an annoyed glare. "Back off, bastard. Before I kill you."

Sensing a fight about to go down, the rest of the Buggy pirates started shouting and cheering. "Get him Captain! Cut him to pieces!" Sam tensed and braced herself, placing a hand on her new knife as she eyed the excited pirates.

Buggy grinned widely and laughed loudly in an annoyingly high voice. "Give it your all, Pirate Hunter, or your blood will be on my blade!" with that said, Buggy righted his grip on his knives and charged.

Within a second Zoro had his swords out and ready. When the pirate captain got within range, Zoro brought his swords down, cutting the clown clean through in three different places. His leg, torso, and arm.

"Hey," Luffy cried in surprise. "That was way too easy!"

"No way!" the ginger gasped as her hands flew to her mouth.

Zoro looked at the corpse of the captain in disappointment and sheathed his swords.

Sam's expression stayed blank and she didn't even flinch as the different body parts hit the floor.

Around them, the clowns started laughing softly amongst themselves. Zoro gave them a questioning look but ignored them as he walked over to Luffy's cage.

"Hey, Zoro! Get me out of here already!" Luffy said, straining against the ropes.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear." Zoro said as he looked at the cage. "It won't open without a key, and I can't cut the bars…"

"Ah, that's a problem."

"Ya think?"

The clowns, who up to this point had been pretty quiet, started laughing loudly. Some of them even had to hold onto each other to stop themselves from falling over. Zoro and Luffy looked over at them warily, confused on what was so funny. The ginger haired girl edged away from them as she clutched her staff tighter.

"Yeah, yeah. What's so funny-"Zoro started to say, only to be cut off by a scream of pain…

… From Buggy's corpus.

"Big Nose's alive!?" Luffy yelled as his jaw hit the floor, quite literally.

"What the hell?!"

"Captain Buggy?!"

"What happened, captain Buggy!?"

Buggy's 'corpus', now mostly whole, writhed on the floor in pain. He held his right arm, which was the only part missing, close to his body. In his pain, he glared at something behind the pirate hunter with a murderous look. " _You!_ " he snarled.

Everyone on the roof turned to look and where dumbstruck at what they saw. Sam just grinned widely, flashing teeth, as she grounded her heel into the back of Buggy's hand, earning another pained yelp from the Clown.

"She's standing on captain's hand!"

"How dare you!?"

"Captain, are you ok?"

Luffy smiled widely and called. "Awesome, Sam! I didn't even see that coming!" Zoro smirked and inclined his head in her direction.

"Thanks."

The blonde snickered and pressed down harder on the offending hand, her grin still wide enough to see over her scarf. Having enough with the pain, Buggy finally yanked his hand free.

Sam wobbled at the sudden change in balance as Buggy's hand finally reattached to the stub of his arm. If looks could kill, Sam would have been turned to ash by the sheer force of the pirate captain's glare.

"You little bitch," Buggy spat, his glare like white hot iron. "How did you know about my attack?!"

The blonde's grin grew wider and her eyes seemed to say 'I-know-something-you-don't' as she said carefully, "Bara Bara no Mi…" she cocked her head to the side, mirth flashing in her eyes. "Ne?"

Zoro's eyes widened slightly at her statement before cutting his gaze to the glowering pirate. The idiot trio _had_ said their captain had a devil fruit, and from the look on said captain's face, she had guessed right.

Buggy growled before adopting a cocky—if not strained—grin and spreading his arms out wide as he tried to play off the blow to his ego. "That's right! I ate the Bara Bara no Mi and now you can cut me all you want, but you'll never kill me!"

"That's why his body parts can reattach! He ate a devil fruit!" the ginger gasped as she stared at the pirate captain with wide eyes.

"Yeah, but that means nothing if we can still punch you." Zoro said as he crossed his arms and leveled Buggy with an unimpressed glare.

"Freak," Luffy said from inside his cage and Zoro sent him a sharp look.

"Like you're one to talk."

"Hmm?"

"… Never mind."

"It doesn't matter!" Buggy shouted. He bared his knives as he got ready for another attack. "You may know my devil fruit, but doesn't mean I still can't kill you!" That worked his crew into a frenzy as they shouting jeers and taunts at the fledgling pirate crew.

Zoro's lips turned down as he glare at the rowdy pirates, his hands resting on his swords. Sam's grin turned wary as she got into a loose attack stance, one hand on her new knife.

Luffy sat quietly in his cage, his trademark straw hat shadowing his eyes. Just as it looked like the clowns where about to work themselves into a headlong change, he said something that surprised everyone.

"Zoro! Sam!"

"Hmm?" the two named pirates turned to look at their captain, one with a raised eyebrow and the other with a curious backwards glance.

A face splitting grin spread across their captain's face. "Run away!"

"HUH?!" everyone on the roof stopped short and gave the rubber pirate an incredible look as if he had grown another head.

Sam was the only one to not seem very surprised, mostly because she didn't really know what he said. Not that that seemed to matter anyway. She snickered before nodded and saying cheerfully, "Aye, aye!" as she ran for the mostly forgotten cannon.

Zoro took a moment longer to follow his captain's orders, but as he looked back at his captain's face, Luffy grinned right back. A moment longer paused…

… Before the once bounty hunter smirked. "Oh, got it."

 _CLANG!_

" _Yeah!_ "

Zoro spared his other crewmate a glance as he reached Luffy's cage and one of his eyebrow twitched upward. Why would she flip the cannon—oh.

He smirked devilishly. "Hey! Ginger! Light the cannon!"

The ginger girl looked at him in confusion for a second before understanding crossed her face. "What—? Oh!"

As she scrambled to light the fuse, the clowns seemed to snap out of whatever trance they had fallen into. They took one look at the flipped cannon, and promptly flipping _their_ shit.

"They pointed the cannon at us!"

"AND IT'S STILL LOADED WITH A BUGGY BALL!"

The resulting blast was deafening, but oh so satisfying.

* * *

"Let's stop here," Zoro said as he stopped and dropped Luffy's cage before sitting down beside it. Sam sat down beside a dog and let it sniff her hand before scratching it behind the ear, a big grin appearing across her face.

"So we got away, now what?" Zoro asked. "How are we supposed to get you out of this cage?" he wrapped his knuckles against one of the cages bar to make his point.

"Can you cut it?" Luffy asked, even as he tried to chew his way out.

"No." Zoro grunted, glaring at the cage as if it had personally offended him.

"Damn."

"What are you doing?" A voice said. The three Strawhats looked up and grinned—well, two grinned, Zoro at least didn't scowl.

"Hey, it's our navigator!" Luffy said, hand on his hat.

"I never agreed to anything!" the ginger snapped, a tick mark appearing at her temple.

Sam grinned up at her happily. " _Future navigator of ours! Nice of you to show up. Please tell me you have the key for this cage._ " She said as she patted the top of Luffy's cage.

The ginger looked at Sam strangely which Sam returned with an even bigger grin. Seeing her look, Zoro stepped in. "She doesn't speak common, or _good_ common at least."

The ginger looked at him in surprise. "Doesn't speak common? How is that possible?"

Zoro shrugged. "Don't know, and it's not like we can ask her."

"Yeah, but she's funny!" Luffy added.

Sam looked between the three of them, trying not to seem too lost.

"Well, anyway," the ginger said as she reached into her pocket and withdrew a key. "I just came over here to give you guys my thanks." She said as she tossed the key down between the pirates.

Before the key could even reached the ground, the blonde of the group made a mad drive for the key. Once the key was safely in her hands she sat back and grinned triumphantly. She turned her grin to the white dog sitting next to her and stuck her tongue out at it. The dog barked back.

"She's… quite the character." The ginger said as she watch the exchange.

"Shishishi! Yep!" Luffy snickered as Sam unlocked his cage. As soon as she opened the cage door wide enough, Luffy come bouncing out of his cage. Literally.

He threw his hand up over his head, his grin almost impossible wide. "Ah, it's good to be free!"

Zoro grunted, though the corner of his mouth curled upward. "At least the rescue was a success."

" _Ah, guys?_ "

"So what do you plan on doing now?" the ginger asked, looking over them with a raised eyebrow.

" _Guys._ "

Luffy grinned at his navigator. "Big Noise still has the map to the Grand Line, so we're gonna go get it! So join my crew!"

"Didn't I already tell you no?!"

" _Oi!_ "

Zoro, Luffy, and the ginger finally looked over at Sam, who at this point looked thoroughly annoyed. She jabbed her thump to the side at an old man in even older armor. The old man looked slightly ruffled about being ignored up to this point.

"What are you kids doing here?"

"Huh? Who are you? And why does your hair kinda look like a poodle?" Luffy asked, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

"Me? I'm the mayor of this town, Boodle!" The now named mayor said proudly, as he struck some kind of pose. He leveled each of the teens a stern look. "There are pirates in this town! It isn't safe for kids like you to be running around! And my hair's natural, thank you."

Zoro groaned and grumbled. "Isn't shouting in the middle of the street in a pirate infested town also unsafe?"

Sam snickered from her seat by the dog as she petted it, a lazy grin in place.

* * *

Sam carefully looked around the empty street. The others talked over her in rapid fire Japanese that she had no hope in understanding. Several times the mayor gestured over as her, most likely talking about the dog she was currently petting, so she presumed that he was telling the rest of the Strawhats his backstory.

The pitiful look Nami was sending Shushu affirmed it.

The blonde stopped her scan of the area to cost the group another glance. If it went by the book, the lion tamer and Richie the lion would show up soon, Luffy would get blasted through a house, Shushu would get beaten up, Luffy would get revenge, and then proceed to kick the local Ringleader's ass five ways to Sunday.

But it hadn't gone by the book so far. Zoro wasn't stabbed, Luffy was free, so what had been written no longer was solid **fact**. Anything could happen.

No, not anything, she mused. So far the story had stayed on track, even with her there, so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think it would stay that way for a while. So Richie and his tamer would show up—couldn't remember that man's name to save her life—and Buggy would still get his ass handed to him curtesy of one straw hat wearing rubber pirate.

Just a little differently.

She smirked into her scarf and chuckled darkly. Nami shot her a look, which she in turn flashed her a bright smile. She still looked a little wary—Sam had no idea why though—but still turned her attention back to the conversation she was having.

Now where was that lion?

 _ROAR!_

"Ah. There it is," Sam said as she looked in the direction of the roar. Nami and the mayor flipped at the sound of the incoming danger and fled to a safe distance. Luffy and Zoro on the other hand only looked mildly curious. Shushu didn't even react.

Luffy looked up as the sound of heavy foot falls got closer and perked up when Richie and his tamer came into view.

" **(4)** Watashi wa Mohji, bagī kaizoku no kemono teimādesu," the beast tamer said while he sat proudly on the back of his lion. He turned his gaze to Zoro and said something with a sneer. Zoro leveled him with an unimpressed look and seemingly brushed whatever he had said off.

 _Huh,_ Sam thought, eyeing the swordsman. _Why do I get the feeling that he is completely unimpressed with Buggy's crew as a whole?_ She thought about it for a moment even as Mohji snarled something overhead. _Maybe because he is_.

Sam raised an eyebrow when she noticed that Mohji had gotten off of Richie and was holding his hand out towards Shushu. Both she and the dog regarded the offered hand of a moment before they shared a look.

"Bite."

 _CHOMP!_

" **(5)** Itai!"

Sam fell over laughing as Mohji had a hasty retreat back to the safety of Richie's back. Luffy was holding his stomach laughing and Zoro snickered at the failed taming even as Mohji tried to brush it off.

Sam reached over and patted Shushu on the head. "Brilliant! Good boy, Shushu!" she managed to say between her laughing.

The lion and his tamer growled, and with a snarl, Mohji shouted an order while pointing at Shushu and the blonde. Sam stopped her laughter in time to stare wide eyed as a massive paw came bearing down on her.

A streak of red flashed in her vision before her captain materialized in front of her and block the powerfully swipe. She squeaked at the impact and blinked up at her captain as he leveled the attacking duo with a glare.

Zoro scowled at Mohji, one hand on Wado's hilt. Shushu growled and barked at the larger feline, looking about ready to attack. Sam looked from Luffy to Richie and Mohji (who both looked like they had made a grave mistake) dumbfounded.

Luffy growled something at the two Buggy pirates and lashed out. Sam blinked again when their bodies hit the other side of the street and went straight through the house.

"Now that was pitiful," Sam said as the dust cleared, revealing a gaping hole.

* * *

It didn't take long for Nami and the mayor to wonder back over. The two of them stood gaping at the massive hole in the other building for a good few minutes before turning to look at Luffy like they were seeing him for the first time.

Sam snickered. Yeah, he _did_ kinda have that effect on people.

Sam watched with mild amusement as the mayor proclaimed his will to fight—or she thought so, language barriers are so hard to deal with. It also helped that she had recently watched the first part of the series. Having foreknowledge to the plot really helped when she couldn't understand a thing.

A loud blast sound as an entire row of houses disappeared in a brilliant show of firepower. Nami and the mayor both grew deathly pale and shouted in surprise at the destruction of property. Luffy clamped a hand down on his hat to keep it from flying away as he stared in shock. Zoro and Sam, having seen something similar earlier that day, spared the destruction a glance.

Again, Shushu didn't even react.

Sam patted the dog on the head one last time before standing and eyed the mayor as he stormed off to avenge his town. She watched him storm around the bend, ready to face a pirate way out of his league and raised an eyebrow.

She knew Luffy and the crew went and saved him, but come on. At least the mayor could have gone back for backup, or called the marines. She shook her head. Sometimes the things people did in this universe never made sense.

She glanced over at the rest of the crew and hid a grin as Nami shook hands with Luffy. The blonde caught Zoro's eye and grinned devilishly as she sent the navigator a sidelong look. Zoro picked up on her meaning and smirked back.

Sam snickered into her scarf. Nami as she was now still thought she could get away with being a _temporary_ crewmate of Luffy. _Luffy._ The man with a stubborn strike as long as the Grand Line and a lack of understanding ' _no_ '. She thinks she can get away scot free from that kind of force of nature—because that's what he was, at least in the future.

Ha. How cute.

As the four of them started in the direction of the mayor, Sam sent a glance over her shoulder at the line of destroyed houses.

Wonder how Mohji and Richie faired in that blast?

She faced forward again and shrugged, "Meh, it's not my problem."

* * *

The battle at the bar went mostly as Sam had expected. The Strawhats showed up just in time to save the mayor from being choked to death before proceeding to slam his face into a nearby wall. Nami had shouted up a storm at the two male Strawhats as Sam hid a grimace and moved the mayor out of the way.

Wouldn't want him to get trampled on in the ensuing fight, now would they?

She half expected Buggy to then fire his famous Buggy-Ball, but was surprised when he seemingly just ordered his underlings to attack. She looked at the charging pirates in alarm as she reached for her knife, but she didn't have to worry.

Her two crewmates took most of them down in under a minute.

Monsters.

The rest of the pirates seemed to share the feeling, as they backed off and eyed the two of them warily. Nami just sighed, having come to some form of an understanding with herself that this kind of thing was the norm and quietly faded into the back ground, off to rob the pirates blind.

Sam pouted though. Sure, she wasn't that skilled in a fight, but at least she had her devil fruit to back her up. It wouldn't be too hard to fight grunts that Luffy and Zoro could one-shot and she doubted that the average East Blue grunts budget could afford Sea-stone _anything_ , so she was safe on that front too.

When Buggy and—Cabaji she thinks?—finally came out to face their destined opponents for this arc, Sam sighed and crossed her arms as she rocked back on her heels.

Now what was she supposed to do? All the major players were taken care of, so all that was left was for someone to be on grunt patrol for the rest of the fight. Sam turned her attention to the remaining clowns that hadn't been taken care of yet and grinned.

Well everyone has to start somewhere, right?

She was about ready to start her first grunt killing spree when a familiar roar stopped her. She glanced over her shoulder and widened her eyes in surprise.

"So those two lived, huh?" she muttered. Sure enough, Mohji and Richie where standing in the middle of the street, sporting big bruises on their cheeks and covered in dust and a small bit of blood, but standing all the same.

Looks like mob patrol would have to wait.

She turned and went to stand in front of them while still being a fair distance away. The two turned their glare from the fighting captains to the blonde as she grinned up at them.

"So, it looks like you're my opponent for this island," Sam said as she gave them a mock bow. The two scrunched their faces up in confusion and cocked their heads to the side.

"Nani?"

The blonde let out a long suffering sigh and looked to the heavens. "Is it always going to be like this until I get a translator?"

As expected, there was no answer.

Sam sighed again before flashing the duo in front of her a grin that was almost borderline psychotic. Now, she knew these guys where pirates and wouldn't think twice about gutting her if they got the chance. But she wasn't going to give them any.

All she had to do was stay away from those claws.

Easy.

"Now then, shall we get started?" she said more for her sake than anything. She looked the enemy pirates in the eye and smirked.

" **Strength Boost! Speed Boost!** " Sam said clearly. Moments later two sets of rings flashed—first yellow, then shortly follow by blue. The auras left behind blended into a soft green glow that settled over her skin.

She flashed the shocked pirate duo in front of her a cocky grin. That seemed to piss them off, because the next thing she knew, Richie was bearing done on her with a side swipe.

Acting instinct, the blonde drew her blade in a reverse grip and brought her arms up for a block as she braced herself for the incoming impact.

The impact hit her hard, almost breaking her defense. Yellow aura flared to life as she was knocked to the side. The force of the blow knocked her off balance—and almost off her feet.

She regained her footing and glared at the other pirate and his mount. That one blow had sent her to the other side of the street, and would have sent her farther if not for her boosts. She tsked as Richie turned and leveled her with a glare.

She returned it with one of her own as she flashed forward, blue aura flaring around her. She barely dodged another hasty swipe by docking under the incoming paw. She lashed out with her knife as she passed the lion's shoulder before bolting away to a safe distance, leaving behind a long gash.

Richie roared in pain and tried to rank her with his claws, but she was already out of reach. She grinned at the lions glare when it turned and growled. With another roar, Richie charged forward.

Sam tensed, formulating a plan as the lion thundered closer. Her eyes widened and she swore when he was almost on top of her as her plan was only halfway formed. In a flashed of blue she dived to the side, dodging the lions teeth by mere inches.

She quickly put some distance between them as Richie come to a stop and turned to face her. The final pieces to her plan clicked into place as the lion geared up for another charge.

When Mohji gave the order and Richie sprang forward, Sam smirked and braced her legs. She had to time it _just_ right and use _just_ the right amount of force if this was going to work. When she deemed Richie to be in range, she jumped straight up as she reached out and pushed the lion's head down and away from herself. Using the lion's head as a hand hold, she spun around like a top and lashed out and a shocked Mohji, kicking him off Richie and clear across the street with a flare of yellow.

Letting her momentum carry her, Sam settled onto the now dumbstruck lion's back. She brought her fist back ready to deliver the finishing blow when Richie snapped back to reality and tried to knock her off. Her fist came down in a flare of yellow before he could and he was slammed into the ground forming a small crater.

Sam regarded the crated for a second before shrugging and getting off of the unconscious lion. She hadn't meant to hit him hard enough to form a _crater_ of all things, she hadn't wanted to kill the poor lion, but he had a thicker skull than she had thought. She's just has to work on her power output.

Sam glanced up and grinned at the gathering of rapidly paling clowns.

 _Riiiight_ , grunt patrol.

The blonde champion let out a maniacal laugh as she charged towards the now panicking clowns.

They would do nicely for practice.

* * *

As the last clown went down in a flash of blue and yellow, Sam finally took a look around the battle field. She cocked an eyebrow at Zoro's sleeping form and cast Luffy a glance as he bazookaed Buggy to the next island.

She nodded to herself. Looks like she finished just in time.

She meandered over to Zoro and knelt down beside him. "Zoro, Zoro," she said as she shook his shoulder to wake him. He blinked open one eye and focused on her before opening both eyes and raising an eyebrow. She grinned at him before getting to her feet and edging towards an alley that went in the general direction of the docks.

Sam eyed the townspeople that had showed up out of nowhere—ninjas, the lot of them!—and tensed for the inevitable chase. When Luffy apparently said the magic words and the townspeople screamed for blood and charged, Sam turned on her heel and fled down the street.

She was careful to not full out run, seeing as her boosts were still active. They didn't have a time limit, or at least one she had hit yet, so she only had to worry about accidentally running into buildings. Which wouldn't be fun. At all.

When she saw Shushu ahead, she grinned and quickly turned down the alley that he was conveniently guarding.

"Hahaha! Thanks Shushu!" she yelled over her shoulder when she heard him stopping the angry citizens.

It didn't take them long to reach the docks after that, and she only had to double back to get Zoro once, so she thought personally that they made good time. When they reached the boats, she blinked when the clown trio from before jumped out of one of the boats, cocky grins in place.

They took one look at Zoro though and reached an octave she thought impossible for the male population to reach and jumped into the sea. She watched them disappeared over the horizon and shrugged.

"Weird clowns."

She climbed into their original boat and settled down at her spot at the bow. She took a deep breath and braced herself for what was next.

" **Drop**."

Her trademark rings flashed, taking with them their glowing auras and leaving nothing behind save for **pain** _ **.**_

" _Son of a—_ "Sam cringed as the pain hit her. It was worse this time! So much worse! The others shot her concerned looks as they readied the boats for departure. She ignored them as she groaned in pain.

Never, ever again! The pain was not worth it!

Getting a farewell from the mayor, even if she couldn't understand a word, was defiantly worth it.

* * *

 **Translations (taken from Google translate, so some may be wrong):**

 **(1)** Nani? = What? (Shows up twice)

 **(2)** Sore wa, kono hōhōdesu! = It's this way!

 **(3)** Son'na koto shitteru! = I know that!

 **(4)** Watashi wa Mohji, bagī kaizoku no kemono teimādesu. = I am Mohji, Beast Tamer of the Buggy Pirates.

 **(5)** Itai! = Ouch!

 **Oh, and if anyone didn't catch on to why Sam was hissing at the sea, that was because she was thirsty. The sea being salt water meant that even though she was surrounded by water, she couldn't drink any, and that annoyed her. But seeing as she's a Champion of Water and therefore a Sea Dragon, she could most likely drink sea water and be perfectly fine. But she doesn't know that yet. :)**

 **So, yeah. Good? Bad? Somewhere in-between? Drop me a review and tell me how I did and what you think of the story so far!**


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